Associate Professor Luis Garcia-Puente, of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (right), has been informed that a proposal for a full research workshop he and several of his colleagues submitted to the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) has been accepted by BIRS for one of the inaugural meetings of the organization’s new mathematics research station in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The workshop, titled “Sandpile groups,” will be held at the new Casa Matematica Oaxaca (CMO) at a date to be determined in mid-2015. The CMO research facility will be built on a lot that was generously donated by the eminent Mexican artist, Francisco Toledo with funds from Conacyt (NSERC’s Mexican counterpart). The Center is located in San Agustín Etla, a town that lies in a picturesque canyon in the foothills of the Sierra de San Felipe seventeen miles north of the city of Oaxaca.
Dr. Garcia-Puente’s proposal succeeded amid a very competitive selection process that involved submission of 173 workshop proposals, of which 100 were not chosen. All the proposals were examined in no less than 815 reviews in the selection process.
The proposal was submitted by Dr. Garcia-Puente and four of his colleagues from other institutions, including Drs. Dino Lorenzini of the University of Georgia, Criel Merino of Mexico’s UNAM, David Perkinson of Reed College, and Carlos Enrique Valencia Oleta, of Cinvestav-IPN in Mexico.
A news release developed for the proposal submission describes the workshop: “In recent years, the sandpile group of a graph has been an important object of study in several distinct mathematics communities, including combinatorics, algebraic geometry, and computer science. The aim of this workshop is to bring together senior experts and junior researchers from each of these areas, to foster communication and cross-pollination, and establish new links and joint projects between the areas.”
For more information about BIRS, see the organization’s website.
The College of Sciences and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics congratulate Dr. Garcia-Puente on this achievement and the opportunity for Sam Houston State University to be part of a prominent new international research collaboration.