Participants at the Workshop on Dynamics and Moduli Spaces of Translation Surfaces • October 22 - 26, 2018
About 100 participants, primarily early career
mathematicians, attended the summer school.
The Workshop on Geometry of Teichmüller Space
occurred the week after the summer school, on
August 27-31. This workshop featured 19 speakers
who gave talks across a broad range, spanning
much of Teichmüller theory and connected areas.
There were over 90 participants in total and
many spectacular talks on cutting edge research
in higher Teichmüller theory. Some of the talks
gave new insights into the intricate geometry
of Teichmüller and moduli spaces and the
coarse geometry of mapping class groups. The
workshop also included a lunch-hour round-table
discussion on women in mathematics, which was
attended by almost all workshop participants.
The Workshop on Dynamics and Moduli Spaces
of Translation Surfaces, held on October 22-
26, had roughly 70 registrants. This workshop
brought together participants in the broad area of
translation surfaces, which has been influenced
from areas across dynamics, geometry, and
even algebra and number theory. There were
20 speakers who talked about work across
dynamical, geometric, and algebro-geometric
perspectives. The workshop also benefitted
from some speakers talking about related
topics like random Riemann surfaces, dynamics
on infinite volume homogeneous spaces and
stability conditions in more general settings.
The main body of the program featured three
graduate courses and two regular seminars. The
three courses reflected the diversity and breadth of
the Thematic Program. The first course, Topology
and Geometry of Automorphism Groups of Free
8
Groups, was taught by the Dean’s Distinguished
Visiting Professor, Mladen Bestvina (University of
Utah). The second, Dynamics and its Connections
to Teichmüller Theory, was taught by Jon Chaika
(University of Utah). Finally, the course on
Geometry and Dynamics in Teichmüller Space
Equipped with the Thurston Metric was taught by
Kasra Rafi (University of Toronto). Courses were
well attended by local students, postdocs, and
long- and short‑term visitors. The seminars
ran weekly and one was organized by
the Program's postdoctoral fellows.
The Coxeter lectures had 35 participants
and featured three inspiring lectures by
Curtis McMullen (Harvard University).
These lectures were titled Planes
in Number Theory, A Panorama of
Teichmüller Curves; and Billiards and the
Arithmetic of Non-arithmetic Groups.
The program was fortunate to overlap
with the Fields Medal Symposium in
honor of the late Maryam Mirzakhani
(Fields Medal 2014). The symposium
had roughly 140 participants and
featured 16 talks. The Public Opening
featured remarks by Ian Hambleton
(Fields Institute Director), Vivek
Goel (Vice President, Research and
Innovation, University of Toronto),
Donna Strickland (2018 Physics Nobel
Prize winner and Professor, University
of Waterloo), and Carlos Kenig (President-
Elect, International Mathematical Union). Jenya
Sapir (Binghamton University), Maryam's first
student, delivered a moving introduction. The
evening ended with a riveting public lecture