Midwest Dynamical Systems Seminar

Overview: The Midwest Dynamical Systems Seminar (MWDS) has established itself as one of the leading research conferences in dynamical systems in the United States. It has met uninterruptedly for more than forty years, and for the past twenty-seven years it has been supported by National Science Foundation grants. The proposed grant will cover the expenses of nine to twelve speakers and support approximately thirty participants (primarily graduate students and junior faculty) in each of two annual MWDS meetings. These conferences take place over weekends, with two talks planned for Friday afternoon, six or seven talks on Saturday, and only two or three talks scheduled on Sunday morning. This encourages the participation of many people that can attend by traveling over a short distance. Additionally, the established procedure for selecting venues guarantees that the MWDS comes close to a large number of interested parties. Intellectual merit: Dynamical systems is one of the most active areas of mathematical research and has interactions with almost every other area of mathematics. The MWDS brings together researchers from all branches of dynamics and promotes interactions with other fields of Mathematics. The MWDS will encourage talks that not only present recent important developments but point towards new areas of promising research. Broader impact: The MWDS will continue its tradition of bringing together researchers from all branches of dynamics, of providing opportunities for recent PhD’s to present their work, and of attracting new students and researchers to the field. We are firmly committed to the policy of using the Midwest Dynamical Systems Seminars as part of an ongoing educational experience for graduate students and a vehicle for supporting the research careers of new researchers. As in the past, the participation of women and minorities will be encouraged. Each meeting will be held at a different university. One advantage of this format is that it brings the MWDS to a wider audience, including students and young researchers who may otherwise not be able to otherwise attend. The local organizers choose the speakers, so this also diversifies the presenters and the themes. Participants in the MWDS have discovered connections between mathematics and other disciplines including theoretical physics, statistical mechanics, electrical engineering, information theory, economics, game theory, voting theory, and epidemiology. These connections are the subject of frequent presentations at the meetings.