GSCC Conference

The GSCC provides a unique and invaluable opportunity for graduate students whose research focuses on combinatorics to experience the benefits of taking part in a research conference. For most conferences that graduate students attend, such as AMS sectional meetings or regional discipline-specific conferences like the Triangle Lectures in Combinatorics, we get the chance to hear influential and informative research talks by some of the most well-known researchers across the country. However, these conferences have very few graduate students speakers, instead they consist of mostly talks given by postdocs and professors. The GSCC, other than the keynote lectures, focuses solely on graduate student talks, and with only graduate students and local professors in attendance, the conference provides at low pressure environment in which we can present our research. Additionally, the GSCC provides a great opportunity for graduate students to network by meeting other young mathematicians with similar research topics. These conferences can even lead to potential joint research projects down the road. Even if a graduate student does not attend talks that directly relate to his or her research, hearing research talks in distantly related topics within combinatorics can broaden one's view of the subject and open one's eyes to excited new areas that may peak new interests. Combinatorics is a field of mathematics that casts a wide net across many disciplines. It is a vibrant area for new, innovative research that can involve problems and techniques within algebra, geometry, topology, probability, computer science, and even analysis. Combinatorics research has been applied to answer important questions in many areas including biology, economics, and physics. In order to keep this interdisciplinary field as vibrant as it has been in recent decades, it is necessary to have conferences like the GSCC to keep young mathematicians aware of the advances that have been made in this lively and exciting field. In conclusion, the 2015 GSCC will help its participants learn the current trends combinatorics research while providing the collaborative and engaging atmosphere where graduate students can present their own research and receive feedback from their peers, as is described in the IMA's mission. The networking possibilities and the experience gained from giving a research talk will greatly help the attendees mature as mathematicians and as future faculty members or professionals outside of academia.