Conference: Geometric Group Theory Around Cube Complexes

This award provides funding for the conference "Geometric Group Theory Around Cube Complexes," which will take place at the CIRM, the International Center for Mathematical Research, in Luminy, France during May 25 - 29, 2026. The conference will feature research talks by celebrated leaders in the field and young researchers bringing exciting new talent to the area. A principal aim of the conference will be to facilitate interaction between participants. To this end, the conference will feature short talks by junior researchers, a problem session, organized social activities, and shared meals and lodging throughout the week. The conference will also serve to learn from Michah Sageev's impact on the field. A follow-up workshop for early career U.S.-based researchers held in the U.S. will ensure that the ideas of the conference have a lasting reach. The conference will focus on CAT(0) cube complexes. These spaces have become central in geometric and combinatorial group theory. CAT(0) cube complexes lie at the forefront of some of the most challenging and compelling open problems in the field, including Cannon's Conjecture and the Surface Subgroup Conjecture. This conference will facilitate the interactions necessary to further develop the impact of these ideas. This goal will be achieved by inviting leading expects from neighboring fields with extensive overlapping interests, actively recruiting the next generation of researchers, and facilitating formative interactions between the two. The CIRM conference location provides the rare opportunity for junior researchers to live and work alongside senior mathematicians. Development opportunities, including short talks by junior researchers and a problem session, will be planned along with organized social activities. The CIRM will expertly record and catalog some of the talks; these will be posted to the conference website along with the problem list. The conference website is: https://sites.google.com/view/michahfest/home. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.