Annual Report 2005 - Fields Institute - University of Toronto

University) presented recent results on the use of DNA molecules
to govern generalized output processes. Eric Klavins
(University of Washington) spoke on robotic self-organization.
There were twenty three 25-minute oral presentations
of research contributions, where the last minutes of each
talk were devoted to an active time for questions and
comments. Also, a poster session was held where forty five
posters were presented.
With Len Adleman (the founder of the field of DNA
Computing) in attendance, and with an impressive array of
talks combining theoretical aspects with the latest achievements
in nanotechnology, DNA11 has been a successful and
inspiring meeting.
The Fields Institute was the lead sponsor for the conference.
In addition, the conference was supported by MITACS,
BIOMAR Inc. and the University of Western Ontario.
Plenary Speakers:
Eshel Ben-Jacob (Tel Aviv)
Bacterial intelligence and DNA computing
James Gimzewski (UCLA)
Nanomechanical probes of biosystems
Pehr Harbury (Stanford)
Translating DNA words into actions
Eric Klavins (Washington)
Robotic self-organization
Dipankar Sen (Simon Fraser)
DNA as the raw material for general-purpose electrical biosensors
Summer School in Operator Algebras
33 rd Canadian Operator Symposium (CoSy)
June 7-17, 2005 and June 19-24, 2005
Held at the University of Ottawa
Organizing committee: Thierry Giordano (Ottawa), David
Handelman (Ottawa), Jamie Mingo (Queen’s), Matthias
Neufang (Carleton) and Vladimir Pestov (Ottawa)
Advisory Committee: George Elliott (Toronto), Ken Davidson
(Waterloo), Nigel Higson (Penn State), Ian Putnam
(Victoria) and Roland Speicher (Queen’s)
The University of Ottawa hosted a pair of linked events in
June, starting with a two-week summer school in Operator
G e n e r a l S c i e n t i f i c A c t i v i t i e s
Algebras, and concluding with the 33 rd Canadian Operator
Symposium (CoSy). The symposium was dedicated to
George Elliott, on the occasion of his 60 th birthday. George
is one of Canada’s leading mathematicians, and a driving
force behind operator algebras in Canada. Both events were
sponsored by the Fields Institute.
Additional funding was supplied by a NSERC Leadership
Support Initiative grant, held by J. Mingo, M. Neufang, A.
Nica, and R. Speicher and by a grant from the US National
Science Foundation to support US participants at the summer
school and CoSy.
The summer school was a great success. Over 75 mathematicians
have participated in at least one week of the
summer school, nearly 60 of which number have attended
both weeks. The participants came from Canada, the US
and many European countries. The success of the summer
school is largely due to the exceptional quality of the lecturers,
who each delivered a series of 5 ninety minute lectures.
First week lectures were:
Roger Smith (Texas A&M)
An introduction to the theory of operator spaces
Roland Speicher (Queen’s)
Free probability theory
Stefaan Vaes (Paris VI)
Type III factors in non-commutative probability theory
Second week lectures were:
Nigel Higson (Penn State)
An introduction to noncommutative geometry
Ian Putnam (Victoria)
C*-algebras and dynamical systems
Mikael Rørdam (U. Southern Denmark)
Amenable C*-algebras and their classification
Moreover, additional specialized talks were presented, in
particular by Marius Junge (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
on Probabilistic techniques in operator spaces.
The summer school prepared students to get the most out
of the advanced talks given at the symposium. CoSy itself
represented a chance to assemble a large and active group of
operator researchers. During the banquet held in the honour
of George Elliott, many colleagues, friends and former
students of George emphasized not only the importance
of his mathematical contributions and achievements, but
Fields Institute 2005 ANNUAL REPORT 85