A Conference on

MATROID STRUCTURE THEORY

In Honour of W.T. Tutte, 1917-2002


The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210
July 1-5, 2002

Many leading matroid theorists will attend a Matroid Structure Theory conference to be held at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio during July 1-5, 2002. Recent research work will be reported in a series of fourteen 50-minute lectures and up to sixteen 25-minute lectures.

This meeting aims to bring together the principal researchers who have a common interest in matroid structure, combining its geometrical and graph-theoretical aspects. The intended purpose is to foster that direction of the field by considering past successful applications of structural methods in graph theory and exploring the most likely extensions of these methods to matroid theory. Recent work on the well-quasi-ordering of matroids representable over a finite field has demonstrated that such a project is feasible and has already gathered considerable interest amongst matroid theorists. We will have, in addition, sessions on major recent developments on the Perfect Graph Conjecture.

Associated with the conference, workshops will be held during the preceding weekend (July 6-7). We hope that the research groups present will collaborate both at the conference and the workshops, and that there will be informal interactions amongst the groups as well. We strongly encourage participation in the conference and at least one of the two workshops. We also encourage attendance by graduate students.

The principal topics included in the conference are:


Speakers are at least the following:

Fifty minutes

Twenty-five minutes

Conference Schedule

Saturday & Sunday, Matroid workshops: Room MW 154 in the Math Tower is available 9:00 am-5:00 pm on the weekends. We propose to discuss the paper of Johnson, Robertson and Seymour, "Connectivity in Binary Matroids," handwritten in 146 pages by Paul Seymour.

Sunday at 7:00 pm --- A reception will be held in MW 724.

The MORNING lectures are in Lazenby 021, and the AFTERNOON lectures are in McPherson Lab 1000.

Monday, July 1
09:00-09:30 am --- Robertson dedicates the conference to W.T.Tutte.
Opening remarks from Peter March,
Chair of Ohio State Mathematics Department
09:30-10:30 am --- Whittle
10:30-11:00 am --- Break
11:00-12:00 pm --- Kung
12:00-02:00 pm --- Faculty Club Lunch
02:00-03:00 pm --- Mohar
03:00-03:30 pm --- Maharry
03:30-04:00 pm --- Break
04:00-04:30 pm --- Mayhew
04:30-05:30 pm --- Yu
05:30-07:30 pm --- dinner on the town
08:00-10:00 pm --- "Dowling party"

Tuesday, July 2
09:00-10:00 am --- Bonin
10:00-10:30 am --- Dowling
10:30-11:00 am --- Break
11:00-12:00 pm --- Oxley
12:00-02:00 pm --- Faculty Club Lunch
02:00-03:00 pm --- Welsh
03:00-03:30 pm --- Semple
03:30-04:00 pm --- Break
04:00-04:30 pm --- Qin
04:30-05:30 pm --- Edmonds
06:00-07:00 pm --- Refreshments at Holiday Inn
07:00-09:00 pm --- Banquet
09:00-10:00 pm --- Tribute to W.T.Tutte --- Murty & Younger

Wednesday, July 3
09:00-10:00 am --- Geelen
10:00-10:30 am --- Ding
10:30-11:00 am --- Break
11:00-12:00 pm --- Vertigan
12:00-02:00 pm --- Faculty Club Lunch
02:00-03:00 pm --- Zaslavsky
03:00-03:30 pm --- Slilaty
03:30-04:00 pm --- Break
04:00-04:30 pm --- Kingan
04:30-05:00 pm --- Nigussie
05:00-05:30 pm --- Hlineni
07:00-11:00 pm --- dinner on town with fireworks

Thursday, July 4
11:00-12:00 pm --- Chudnovsky
12:00-02:00 pm --- Lunch on High Street
02:00-03:00 pm --- Geelen
03:00-03:30 pm --- Reid
03:30-04:00 pm --- Break
04:00-04:30 pm --- Wu
04:30-05:30 pm --- Problem Session -- Whittle
07:00-09:00 pm --- Chinese food dinner
09:00-10:00 pm --- Computer Usage---Mohar & Hlineny

Friday, July 5
09:00-10:00 am --- Cornuejols
10:00-10:30 am --- Eliade
10:30-11:00 am --- Break
11:00-12:00 pm --- Yu
12:00-02:00 pm --- Faculty Club Lunch
02:00-03:00 pm --- Chudnovsky
03:00-03:30 pm --- Oporowski
03:30-04:00 pm --- Break
04:00-04:30 pm --- Zambelli
04:30-05:30 pm --- Problem Session --- Conforti
05:30-07:30 pm --- dinner on the town
08:00-10:00 pm --- "survivors party"

Saturday & Sunday Perfect graph workshops: Room MW154 in the Math Tower will be available all day. We could go over parts of the recent Chudnovsky, Robertson, Seymour and Thomas proof of the Berge perfect graph conjecture.

Saturday night. There is a "gallery hop" in the "Short North," usually quite entertaining.

This conference is being supported by the MRI (Mathematics Research Institute) of OSU, The Ohio State University Office of Research, and NSA (National Security Agency).

General Information

The conference will meet on the campus of Ohio State University in the Mathematics Tower (MW), with the sessions in Lazenby Hall (LZ) and McPherson Laboratory (MP), and lunch at the Faculty Club. See the campus map below for the locations.

Campus information for visitors can be found at
http://www.osu.edu/visitor/accommodations.html

Much more departmental and campus information is available at

Accommodations

A block of rooms is being held at the Fawcett Center for participants at a rate of $79. When making a reservation, call 1-800-637-2316 toll-free and say you are "with the Math Conference".

The Fawcett Center Hotel and Conference Center
2400 Olentangy River Road
Columbus, OH 43210
1-800-637-2316 toll-free

The Fawcett Center is a university hotel with a restaurant (Oxley's) just northwest of the main campus, less than a mile by sidewalk from the Mathematics Tower and about a mile from the conference room. A daily continental breakfast is included. Its web site is at www.fawcettcenter.com (but for the special rate CALL to make a reservation). It is linked to a campus area map on the OSU visitor guide web site above.

Participants may check in at the Fawcett Center at any time of day. The Center will arrange a shuttle service from the Columbus airport for those flying to the conference. They will need, with 24 hours notice, your flight, flight number and scheduled arrival time. Call toll-free at 1-800-637-2316.

Rooms with two double beds or one queen bed can be reserved for the same cost (single or double) for stays within the June 29-July 7 period that includes both weekend workshops and the conference. There are other hotels in the area. Please contact Dowling or Robertson if you wish to make alternative accommodations.

Registration

There is no registration fee, but we would like all participants to register. At registration you'll recieve your conference envelope with a name tag, campus maps, the latest program, and other useful information. Registration will be in the Math Tower lounge, MW 724 at the reception starting at 7 pm Sunday, June 30 and at Lazenby Hall 021 starting at 8 am on Monday, June 30 and at Lazenby Hall 021 starting at 8 am on Monday, July 1. Tickets that have been reserved for the Tuesday night banquet ($25 each) cna be paid for by cash or check and picked up there.

Lunch

We have arranged to have our lunches together 12:00-2:00 pm in a separate room of The Faculty Club after each morning session on Monday to Friday except on Thursday (July 4th).

Walking or Driving/Parking

The Fawcett Center is about a 15-minute walk to/from the Math Tower. However, you can park at up to $6.50/day in the Tuttle Park Parking Garage just east of the football stadium (on Tuttle Park Place off Woody Hayes Drive). To reach the Math Tower, from Oxley's Cafe at the southeast corner of this garage, pass the campus bookstore below sculptures of the digits, and proceed up the brickwalk to Neil Avenue. Cross Neil at 18th Ave (which is now three parallel sidewalks and a bikeway). The Math Tower is the seven-story building on the right, about a block east of Neil Avenue.

Social Events

There will be an opening reception in the lounge in the Mathematics Tower (MW 724) on Sunday evening, June 30 at 7:00 pm. There will be a registration desk there with conference information and name tags.

On Monday (8-10 pm) there will be an after-dinner dessert and coffee/wine get-together at the Dowling residence.

Tuesday's afternoon session will end with an invited talk by Jack Edmonds of both research and historical interest. A reception at 6 pm and a banquet at 7 pm will be held overlooking the campus from the 11th floor of the Holiday Inn on the Lane. An after-dinner program in honour of the late William T. Tutte is planned, including tributes by Dan Younger and U.S.R. Murty of the University of Waterloo.

On Wednesday evening fireworks.near downtown Columbus (with hundreds of thousands of people) begin about 9:30.

A Chinese food dinner Thursday will be at the Sunflower Restaurant, just north of Columbus.

On Friday evening, a Survivors party will be held at the Robertson residence.

For further information please contact:

Neil Robertson <robertso@math.ohio-state.edu> or
Tom Dowling <tdowling@math.ohio-state.edu>

Department of Mathematics Ohio State University
231 West 18th Ave.
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1174
614-292-4975 (department phone)
614-292-1479 (department FAX)

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