The 2009 Graduate Student Combinatorics Conference

------------------.1 The proposal is to provide partial support for seventy-five graduate students and the keynote speaker Richard Stanley (MIT) to attend the 2009 Graduate Student Combinatorics Conference. Including local participants, the organizers expect at least ninety individuals to attend. This conference serves to give young researchers in combinatorics a welcoming medium to present their results, an opportunity to make new professional contacts, and a forum to showcase new results and trends in combinatorics. Previous GSCC conferences were held at the University of I\linnesota (2005), the University of Wisconsin (2006), the University of Washington (2007), and UC Davis (2008). Since its inception, the number of participants has almost doubled in size and the number of sessions has changed from two to three simultaneous sessions. The 2009 GSCC will feature for the first time a poster session to bring the number of simultaneous sessions back to two. A poster session will also encourage greater interaction among the participants. As has been the case for past GSCC's, the participants will hail from leading combinatorics graduate programs from all over the United States and Canada. Intellectual Merit Richard Stanley, one of the world's leading experts in combinatorics, will be delivering two keynote talks at the conference. The twenty-four student research and expository talks and twenty- five posters at the poster sessions will be a representative sampling of current trends in algebraic, geometric and topological combinatorics. This will expose the participants to new ideas and leading developments in combinatorics, will augment the mathematics they are currently seeing at their home institutions, and will continue to foster the interdisciplinary nature of the field of cornbiua- torics. Additionally, the poster session will encourage greater networking and interaction among the participants. These new professional contacts may very likely result in future research projects between the participants. Broader Impacts Three broader impacts of the GSCC are: (1) to promote progress in the mathematical sciences by accelerating the professional development of the attendees, (2) to enhance graduate training via a conference environment with attendees from various geographical locations, and (3) to encourage greater female and minority representation in leadership roles in the mathematical sciences. Having half of the conference organizing committee composed of female graduate students (including one minority), the organizing committee chaired by a female, and a female faculty advisor may influence minorities and women to take on more prominent roles in mathematics.