ANNOUNCEMENT OF EAGER
P.R.A.G.M.A.T.I.C.2003 at University of Catania
Promotion of Research in Algebraic Geometry for MAThematicians in Isolated Centers
First announcement
PRAGMATIC is a project, sponsored by EAGER, for stimulating research in Algebraic Geometry among young people especially those living in isolated centers or peripheral universities all over Europe. For this purpose, every year, a group of experts will suggest problems in some specific field and will give lectures and seminars and will have individual discussions with the participants in order to try to attack and to solve these problems.
For more on this project check the web page:
http//:www.dmi.unict.it/~ragusa/docs/frame_pragmatic.html
At the end of all the activities of Pragmatic the original results obtained by the participants will be reproduced in a special issue of the journal "Le Matematiche".
P.R.A.G.MAT.I.C. 2003
School of Algebraic Geometry
University of Catania
9 - 28 June, 2003
PRAGMATIC is a project, sponsored by EAGER, for stimulating research in Algebraic Geometry among young people, especially those living in isolated centres or peripheral universities all over Europe. For this purpose, every year, a group of experts will suggest problems in some specific field and will give lectures and seminars and will have individual discussions with the participants in order to try to attack and to solve these problems.
For more on this project check the web page:
http://www.dipmat.unict.it/~ragusa/
At the end of all the activities of Pragmatic the results that the participants obtain will be reproduced in a special issue of the journal "Le Matematiche".
In the period 9-28 June 2003, at the Mathematics Department of the University of Catania, a new edition of this school of research Pragmatic 2003 will be held.
Teachers: Prof. Igor Dolgachev and Prof. Alessandro Verra
Collaborators: Flaminio Flamini and another to be decided
Theme of research: Selected topics from classical projective geometry.
Pragmatic 2003 will focus on a series of selected topics from classical projective algebraic geometry. In general each topic will be associated to the study of a special variety or to a famous configuration of geometric objects. As is well known special examples and configurations play a constant leading role in Algebraic Geometry. The classical ones represent an inexhausted source of very interesting questions and problems, moreover the description of their properties enlights, quite often, authentic jewels of geometrical beauty. To exhibit only one example one could mention the Kummer quartic surface. This object is really central to so many arguments: it is related to classical line geometry as well as to the theory of K3 surfaces and to theta functions. Its configuration of nodes and conics is celebrated in old and modern books, (see for instance the last chapter of Griffiths-Harris 'Principles of Algebraic Geometry'). Still one can propose a lot of elementary open questions related to this topic, like for instance the following one: find a normal surface in P3 which is self-dual (i.e. the dual surface has the same degree) and it is not a quadric nor a Kummer quartic surface. The above example of Kummer surfaces is only one. During Pragmatic2003 various other objects will be investigated: cubic hypersurfaces and their hessians, linear systems of quadrics, theta characteristics on curves, special Cremona transformations of Pn, geometric realizations of some moduli space, rationality questions and proofs for some of them. In the same spirit further important topics will be possibly introduced.
The course leaders will present various related open problems, as well as their motivations and connections to advanced research fields. They will also provide tools that might help to solve these problems through lectures, seminars, and discussions in small groups.
Pragmatic will grant about 15 fellowships which will permit the fellowship holders to attend the above lectures and seminars, will pay the full cost of board and lodging in Catania for the entire period of the school and will also cover some travel expenses.
These fellowships will be awarded, essentially, to young European researchers, say at the pre-postdoctoral level, with preference given to those belonging to
geographically isolated locations. In addition the Committee of Pragmatic will admit to the courses and seminars some other people who can be supported by their own institutions. The Pragmatic Committee will offer help in finding suitable accomodations at a reasonable cost for these participants.
The Co-ordinator of Pragmatic is Prof. Alfio Ragusa (University of Catania). Other local organizers are:
Rosario Strano, Renato Maggioni, Salvatore Giuffrida, Giuseppe Zappalą.
People who wish to be considered either for a fellowship or for admission to the courses should fill out the enclosed application form, which should then be sent to Prof.Alfio Ragusa at the following address:
E-mail: Ragusa@dmi.unict.it
or by ordinary mail to: Prof. Alfio Ragusa, Dipartimento di Matematica, Viale A.Doria 6, Catania-95125-Italy.
A fee of 150 EURO (payable at registration) will be requested to each participant (note that the fellowship will cover the cost of this fee).
The deadline for applications is April 20 2003.
The Committee of Pragmatic will decide about fellowships and admissions by April 30 2003 and will inform all the applicants of the outcome.
Moreover a list of participants and all the activities of the school will be spread by EAGER net.
Interested people who need more information about Pragmatic can contact any member of the local committee, using the following E-mail address:
sstrano, maggioni, giuffrida, zappalag (one of these)@dmi.unict.it
APPLICATION FORM TO PRAGMATIC 2003 9-28 June, 2003
Surname:
Name:
Male or Female:
Date of Birth:
Nationality:
Institution:
Academic qualification (Ph.D., Master,...):
Name of advisor:
Professional Status and Current Position:
Address:
E-mail:
Field of interest:
Estimate cost of travel to Catania:
If you have a Ph.D, when did you get it and where?
Letter of motivations:
It is suggested to include at the application a recommendation letter and a brief Curriculum vitae.