Participant Testimonials
For someone who loves mathematics and mountains deeply, BIRS is hard to beat. The high mountains are reminders that our scientific searches aim at both depth and highness, something very personal and at the same time communal. You chip away in solitude, but you walk up mountains with a group of friends. Our group participants represent four different angles of approach to geometric evolution equations related to integrable systems; we had not previously interacted as a group, so we used the time to discuss several problems and converge on a couple which look promising for longer term collaboration. On my end, I am now looking at three interrelated approaches to a question I have been interested in for some time. I found the structure of the workshop particularly useful and unlike most I have attended: few plenaries describing broadly the aim and research area of each group, and most emphasis on group interaction, discussion, and brainstorming. The rest was fresh air and glorious views. It was a bit hard to leave.
The participation in the workshop will have a big impact on my research by creating new collaborations and networks. In particular, I hope that our preliminary work at BIRS will result in an interesting paper in the near future. The general talks were very inspiring and provided an overview of current research active areas in Differential Geometry. The workshop was very well organised and BIRS provides a very supportive environment - thanks!
Mathematics, University of Leicester
The workshop was excellent, and the small working groups offered a great opportunity to learn about material related to ---but not exactly in--- my area of research. In a different setting, I wouldn't have had an excuse to sit down and learn from the experts, but I hope that we've now found some interesting questions to explore collaboratively.
Mathematical Sciences Institute, Australian National University
This was a wonderful meeting. I felt very privileged to be in such beautiful place working in interesting problems. I was the leader of the group and I felt that I and other members benefitted very much from meeting researchers in areas that were very close but not immediately connected. We all brought up different points of view and we are now sharing a dropbox and working on a common problem. I hope those who felt isolated (and some did) are not any longer. We will have to wait and see where this leads us. Thank you!
Banff is my favorite place for conference. Lodging, meal are great, and at a great place. This conference is especially great that I met many people I don't know before and we formed some projects and working on it afterwards.
