The eighteenth Annual Binghamton University Graduate Combinatorics Algebra and Topology Conference (BUGCAT Conference) will meet November 15-16 at SUNY Binghamton. Graduate students at all levels, as well as faculty, are invited to give a 30-minute talk; talks may be expository or on current research. This year, we have three distinguished keynote speakers: Caroline Klivans (Brown University), Kim Ruane (Tufts University) and Matt Zaremsky (University of Albany)

For more information, visit: https://sites.google.com/binghamton.edu/bugcat-website/home

This workshop, sponsored by AIM, the NSF, the Topos Institute, and the US NSF Center for Analysis and Prediction of Pandemic Expansion, will consider how category-theoretic foundations for modeling as decision support for multidisciplinary collaboration might advance insights into pandemic science. Multidisciplinary modeling is extremely useful and also extremely difficult (for many reasons). By taking the very concept of "building a model" as itself a sort of model, and phrasing this in the formal mathematical language of (double) category theory, we can develop systems that greatly improve our capabilities for collaborative modeling.

The workshop will bring together a wide range of research communities: category theory, software engineering, dynamical systems, data science, epidemiology, infectious disease modeling, medical geography, behavioral psychology, social and urban networks, and economics.

The interaction between topology and curvature is a fundamental theme in modern mathematics. The study of scalar curvature plays an increasingly important role not only in geometry and topology, but also in general relativity and theoretical physics more generally through the theory of Dirac operators. This special session will bring together experts and young researchers who study these topics from many different points of view. The aim of this session is to share viewpoints and progress on understanding the scalar curvature and topology of manifolds, and to establish new connections among the culturally diverse groups spread worldwide, but particularly in the USA.

The conference honours the work of John F. (Rick) Jardine, a professor at the University of Western Ontario. Over his more than 40 year career, Rick has made foundational contributions to homotopy theory, K-theory, and topological data analysis, in particular shaping the current landscape of homotopical algebra.

Homotopy limits and colimits are a fundamental tool in homotopy theory, with applications to topology, geometry, and algebra. The event is aimed at graduate students, postdocs, and early-career researchers who want to learn more about this topic.

See the website for more details.