CONFERENCE PROPOSAL: Combinatory Analysis 2008: Partitions, q-series, and Applications

Combinatory Analysis 2008, a conference on partitions, q-series, and related areas, will be held at the Pennsylvania State University on December 5-7. 2008.

Interest in the theory of partitions has increased enormously because of its applications to various fields such as combinatorics, Lie algebras, number theory, physics, and statistics. Responding to the rising interest, achievements in partition theory have been presented in various conferences and meetings, while sporadic meetings focusing on partitions have been held. This conference will not only bring together prominent mathematicians in combinatorics, number theory, and special functions to report on recent advances in their areas but also provide a means for research mathematicians, graduate students, and others interested in partitions to explore new achievements, research trends, and problems. In addition, the conference will honor George Andrews who has made major impacts both within the theory of partitions and in the larger mathematical community. Andrews will turn 70 years old around the time of the conference.

We are expecting 75-100 participants with eleven invited plenary 45-minute talks. The list of 45-minute plenary speakers has already been finalized and includes Krishna Alladi, George Andrews, Richard Askey, Bruce Berndt, Kimmo Eriksson, Jim Lepowsky, Jeremy Lovejoy, Ken Ono, Peter Paule, Richard Stanley, and Ae Ja Yee. In addition, several parallel sessions of 20-minute talks are planned, with many of these speakers invited by the organizers.

After the conference, the refereed proceedings will be disseminated through a Special Issue of The Ramanujan Journal (Springer) to be published in 2009 under the direction of Editor-in-Chief Krishnaswami Alladi and guest editors Peter Paule, James Sellers, and Ae Ja Yee.

Most of our overall budget is intended to support graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty, including women and under-represented minorities.

For more information about the conference, please see the following webpage: http://www.math.psu.edu/sellersj/ca2008