Malabika Pramanik, University of British Columbia
"Configurations in sets big and small"
Take an arbitrary set. Can you tell if it contains a copy of your favorite pattern (for example, specially arranged points on a line or spiral, or the vertices of a polyhedron or solutions of an equation)? Does the answer depend on how large or small the set is? Problems involving identification of prescribed configurations under varying interpretations of size have been vigorously pursued in various branches of mathematics, often with spectacular results that run contrary to intuition. Yet many deceptively simple questions remain open. I will survey the literature in this area, emphasizing some of the landmark results that focus on different aspects of the problem.
MC 5501