Participant Testimonials

Mar 13 - Mar 18, 2011

I had a fantastically stimulating and enjoyable week. I had an opportunity to meet with nearly all people in the world who are thinking about the same problems as I. I enjoyed listening to all the talks and I enjoyed giving my own talk to such a receptive audience. It certainly gave a boost to some of the collaborative projects that I am involved in. Whether new project originated exactly during this week is a little too early to tell. Possibly. Certainly the workshop acted as a catalyzer for my favorite scientific discipline. My former student gave a presentation and it was well received. Whether it will have a specific impact on his job prospects is, again, a little difficult to tell. It certainly was a very useful experience for him. Thank you for the opportunity to spend a week doing my favorite work in such a relaxing and stimulating environment!

Greg Arone University of Virginia

The intimate setting of BIRS created an atmosphere of mathematical discourse between myself and colleagues that was virtually unmatched by other workshops I have attended. I came to the workshop with some vague ideas about a certain calculation I was working on - the intense discussions that followed now provide me with a blueprint to work from!

Mark Behrens Assistant Professor
Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This was a wonderful and highly productive workshop, which provided me with considerable new insight into relations between my own research and that of the other participants. As an immediate result of my participation in this workshop, John Harper (another workshop participant) and I will certainly publish a new article containing a lovely little theorem, which the other workshop participants helped us to realized that we had almost finished proving.

Kathryn Hess Professor
Mathematics , École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

This was a remarkable workshop in the placement of the topics, in particular of the well-prepared two-hour series, which were distinct but had interesting overlap. This was the best "snapshots of a field" that one could imagine. I wish the talks were all taped so that they could be a resource for graduate students. I look forward to building on the recent breakthroughs of Arone-Ching and Behrens. I will take the clear picture gained from these lectures back to my home institution, where it is likely that my colleagues and I will build on this insight in our own projects.

Dev Sinha Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Mathematics, University of Oregon