Participant Testimonials

Sep 12 - Sep 17, 2010

I found the workshop very interesting: it was devoted to certain phenomena that are occurring in recent research in the area, and it was presenting these phenomena from different point of views. The scientific program was chosen very carefully and the talks generally were of high level. I was learning some new results that are related to my current research and that might have an impact on my work. The workshop was also a good occasion to intensify some contacts and to learn about some new research activities.

Lidia Angeleri Huegel Dipartimento di Informatica - Settore di Matematica, Universita degli Studi di Verona

I would like to say that I enjoyed very much the scientific program of this workshop. I am very much impressed by several talks. More precisely, my recent research is about weighted projective lines and Frobenius categories. I learned from the workshop that there are considerable link between my research and various other topics, like noncommutative algebraic geometry, fractionally Calabi-Yau algebras and Kerner's exotic spaces. In the near future, I will study more closely on these topics. In fact, I plan to have some mini-seminar in China, on reading some papers by some participants in this workshop.

Xiao-Wu Chen Prof. Dr.
Department of Mathematics, University of Science and Technology of China

At this workshop, I met Atsushi Takahashi. During the workshop, we were able to finish a major revision of our paper "Strange duality of weighted homogeneous polynomials" according to the comments of a referee of the journal where we had submitted the manuscript. We got the opportunity to present the results of this paper in two talks and we obtained interesting feedback. We also discussed about an ongoing further research project. One of the main themes of the workshop were relations of the representation theory of finite dimensional algebras with singularity theory and algebraic geometry. My own expertise is in singularity theory, but since the last workshop at BIRS which I attended in 2008 (08w5060), I have been particularly interested in these connections. During the workshop, I have learned a lot about new developments and results in this direction and I have again got many new ideas from the talks and from discussions with other participants. In particular, one subject which attracted my attention were fractional Calabi-Yau categories and I have the feeling that there might be some connection with my current research. Summarizing, the workshop was very useful and stimulating for me and will have impact on my future research.

Wolfgang Ebeling Institut für Algebraische Geometrie, Leibniz Universität Hannover

The Workshop was very stimulating. In particular, the connection between algebra and geometry is very modern and leads to new insights. The selection of talks was perfect and the organizers did a very good job. So I hope we will have another workshop of this kind in two or three years. For my own work I got several ideas, I had many discussions with other participants and I certainly would like to come again.

Lutz Hille Dr.
Mathematisches Institut, University M�nster

This was the most stimulating meeting I have been to for some time. I came away with new insights and ideas for new projects. The workshop made me realize how important it is to consider non-noetherian graded algebras of exponential growth as homogeneous coordinate rings of non-commutative varieties. I gained a greater appreciation of the work of Minamoto & Mori. I appreciated better the various definitions of the pre-projective algebra and how they give very different perspectives. I realized the significance of abelian categories having no simple objects -- I had previously thought they were somewhat bizarre (with the exception of those arising in Polishchuk's work & those that are hearts (related to irrational slopes) of D^b(coh X) for curves of genus >0. I also appreciated the perspective given by considering sequences of algebras. The workshop will impact my future work (the grant application I am now preparing) and the sorts of problems I will give to my newest graduate students. Great meeting!

Paul Smith Professor
Mathematics, University of Washington