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Schedule and Presentations

Laplacian Eigenvalues and Eigenfunctions: Theory, Computation, Application

February 9 - 13, 2009


Organizing Committee | Scientific Overview | Speaker List

Application/Registration | Contact Us

Organizing Committee

Denis Grebenkov (École Polytechnique, Laboratoire de Physique de la Matiere Condensee)
Peter Jones (Yale University, Mathematics)
Naoki Saito (University of California, Davis (UC Davis), Mathematics)

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Scientific Overview

The investigation of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator in a bounded domain or a manifold is a subject with a history of more than two hundred years. This is still a central area in mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science, and activity has increased dramatically in the past twenty years for several reasons:

  • A discovery of many fascinating properties of the Laplacian eigenfunctions such as the localization in small regions of a complicated domain and scarring in quantum chaotic billiards;
  • The use of Laplacian eigenfunctions as a natural tool for a broad range of data analysis tasks, e.g., dimensionality reduction of high dimensional data via diffusion maps, or analysis of fMRI data for understanding functionality of brain regions;
  • The use of the underlying Laplacian eigenvalues as natural "fingerprints" to identify geometrical shapes, e.g., copyright protection, database retrieval, quality assessment of digital data representing surfaces and solids, and the related inverse spectral problems;
  • The spectral analysis of the Laplace operator for a better interpretation of nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of diffusive transport, e.g., experimental determination of the surface to volume ratio in porous media through the asymptotic properties of the heat kernel;
  • Numerical computation of the Laplacian eigenfunctions and eigenvalues in irregular, often multiscale domains (or sets, or graphs) that still remains a challenging problem demanding for new numerical techniques.
This workshop will be an exciting opportunity to discuss various aspects of these new or long-standing problems with experts in different fields, including mathematics, physics, biology, and computer sciences.

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Invited Speakers

Carlos Alves (University of Lisbon)
Nalini Anantharaman (École Polytechnique)
Arnd Backer (Technishche Universtitat Dresden)
Alex Barnett (Dartmouth College)
Krzysztof Burdzy (University of Washington)
Ronald Coifman (Yale University)
Marcel Filoche (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique Automatique (INRIA))
Denis Grebenkov (École Polytechnique)
Ilya Gruzberg (University of Chicago)
Peter Jones (Yale University)
Michel Lapidus (University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside))
Mauro Maggioni (Duke University)
Francois Meyer (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Kate Okikiolu (University of California, San Diego (UCSD))
Martin Reuter (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Naoki Saito (University of California, Davis (UC Davis))
Bernard SAPOVAL (École Polytechnique)
Pabitra Sen (Schlumberger-Doll Research)
A. Douglas Stone (Yale University)
Terence Tao (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA))

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Application/Registration

An application/registration form is available at:

https://www.ipam.ucla.edu/elements/choose.aspx?pc=le2009

The application part is for people requesting financial support to attend the workshop. If you don't intend to do this, you may simply register. We urge you to apply as early as possible. Applications received by Dec. 15, 2008 will receive fullest consideration. Letters of reference may be sent to the address or email address below. Successful applicants will be notified as soon as funding decisions are made.

We have funding especially to support the attendance of recent PhD's, graduate students, and researchers in the early stages of their career; however, mathematicians and scientists at all levels who are interested in this area are encouraged to apply for funding. Encouraging the careers of women and minority mathematicians and scientists is an important component of IPAM's mission and we welcome their applications.

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Contact Us:

Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM)
Attn: LE2009
460 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles CA 90095-7121
Phone: 310 825-4755
Fax: 310 825-4756
Email:
Website: http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/le2009/

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