Bill Thurston made fundamental contributions to topology, geometry, and dynamical systems. But beyond these specific accomplishments he introduced new ways of thinking about and of seeing mathematics that have had a profound influence on the entire mathematical community. He discovered connections between disciplines that led to the creation of entirely new fields. This meeting brought together mathematicians from a broad spectrum of areas to describe recent advances and explore future directions motivated by Thurston’s transformative ideas.
Thanks to all who came and helped to make this a memorable event!
- Conference photos (thank you to Anne Thomas)
- Videos of lectures and panel discussion (CornellCast)
- Participant List
Invited Speakers
- Ian Agol, University of California at Berkeley
- Mladen Bestvina, University of Utah — slides
- Michel Boileau, Aix-Marseille Université — slides
- Danny Calegari, University of Chicago
- Benson Farb, University of Chicago
- Étienne Ghys, École Normale Supérieure Lyon — slides
- Rick Kenyon, Brown University — slides
- François Labourie, Université Paris-Sud Orsay — slides
- Tan Lei, Université d'Angers — slides
- Vlad Markovic, University of Cambridge
- Dusa McDuff, Barnard College
- Curtis McMullen, Harvard University — slides
- John Milnor, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Stony Brook
- Yair Minsky, Yale University
- Yi Ni, California Institute of Technology — slides
- Alan Reid, University of Texas at Austin — slides
- Mitsuhiro Shishikura, Kyoto University — slides
- Dennis Sullivan, SUNY Stony Brook
- Anna Wienhard, University of Heidelberg and Princeton University
- Dani Wise, McGill University
- Anton Zorich, Université Paris 7 Jussieu — slides
Invited Activities
Kelly Delp (Ithaca College) will show her work with Thurston on modeling surfaces.
Nathan Dunfield (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) will demonstrate the SnapPy program.
Richard Schwartz (Brown University) will demonstrate his software for geometric visualization.
Jeff Weeks will deliver a public lecture on The Shape of Space. — software
There will be a panel discussion on the subject of Communicating Mathematics.
In addition, a film festival and digital art exhibition are planned.
Organizers
- David Gabai, Princeton University
- John Hubbard, Cornell University
- Steve Kerckhoff, Stanford University
- John Smillie, Cornell University
- Dylan Thurston, Indiana University
- Karen Vogtmann, Cornell University
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation and the GEAR Network.