Special Western Canada Linear Algebra Meeting Honouring Professor Peter Lancaster at 95

This event will be a special iteration of the Western Canada Linear Algebra Meeting (WCLAM) to honour Peter Lancaster at 95.

There is a large and thriving Linear Algebra community in Western Canada, where there is ongoing research in matrix analysis, combinatorial matrix theory, applied and numerical linear algebra, combinatorics, operator theory and operator algebras. Linear Algebra is a research subject in its own right. Still, it is also truly interdisciplinary, as linear algebraic tools are ubiquitous across mathematics and in numerous applied fields, including dynamical systems, mathematical biology and machine learning.

There is a continual interplay between the pure discipline and its fields of application. This meeting succeeds a BIRS meeting for Dr. Peter Lancaster in 2017 and is planned as a tribute honouring his 95th birthday. Many consider Dr. Lancaster to be a chief patriarch of this field in our region, having produced a great body of work spanning the field and numerous applications; having collaborated broadly on Linear Algebra work among colleagues in this region and internationally, having supervised numerous students, mentored many young researchers, and organized meetings and workshops here in Canada and beyond.

About WCLAM

The Western Canada Linear Algebra meeting (WCLAM), is a regular series of meetings held roughly once every 2 years since 1993. Professor Peter Lancaster from the University of Calgary initiated the conference series and has been involved as a mentor, an organizer, a speaker and a participant in the lion's share of the fifteen previous WCLAMs. Two broad goals of the WCLAM series are

1. to keep the community abreast of current research in this discipline in our field and
2. to bring together well-established and early-career researchers to talk about their work in a relaxed academic setting.

WCLAM typically features three invited speakers (usually from outside Western Canada) and, despite being a regional meeting, generally attracts participants from across Canada, the U.S.A., Asia and Europe.

In this meeting, participation by early-career researchers and students (especially graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, but also some mathematically keen undergraduates on a research trajectory) will be prioritized; a supportive and welcoming atmosphere for presenting their work among an audience of experts is provided. Part of the novelty with the proposed workshop is the design of the program and participants to provide their accounts of the impact and continued development of Linear Algebra across the region with an emphasis on Peter Lancaster's research. Given the special recognitional nature of this meeting, this workshop will have the additional focus of hopefully highlighting Peter Lancaster's work and lasting contributions, by bringing together some of his colleagues and former highly qualified personnel (students, postdoctoral fellows and trainees).

The WCLAM '24 will be held at the University of Calgary on May 25th - 26th and the program will include three featured speakers who will each present a 1-hour plenary lecture.

The deadline to submit abstracts is April 25th, 2024. 

Registration

Please register by May 10th, 2024. To register, email shaun.fallat@uregina.ca and include the following information: 

• Your name and institution, 
• Your position (faculty member, postdoctoral researcher, graduate student, undergraduate student), 
• Whether you will or will not attend an informal dinner (planned for the evening of May 25). There will be an extra charge for the dinner. Please indicate if you are bringing a guest.
• Whether you plan to give a talk or present a poster. Your title/abstract can be submitted with the registration or separately (note: separate deadline for abstract submissions).

Student/Postdoctoral Travel Support: The conference organizers have secured some funds to partially support the travel of students and/or postdoctoral fellows to present a talk or poster at WCLAM. If you are interested in applying for partial travel support please contact Shaun Fallat at shaun.fallat@uregina.ca The available funds will be awarded in order of application received. 

Registration Fee: $30 (Canadian), payable by cash or cheque (made out to the University of Regina) at the meeting. 

Note: The registration fee is waived for all students and postdoctoral fellows.