Grants

NSF

The 11th Lake Michigan Workshop on Combinatorics and Graph Theory will be held at the University of Notre Dame on May 2-3 2026. The workshop will benefit graduate students and junior researchers in multiple subfields of discrete mathematics, working at institutions in the Great Lakes area and beyond. The workshop is built around three sets of two tutorial lectures, focusing on state-of-the-art techniques and results on which the speakers are particularly qualified to expound. There will also be short talks by students and early-career researchers. There will be ample unscheduled time during the weekend, allowing new research collaborations to commence and active collaborations to be continued. Junior participants will establish valuable connections with more senior colleagues and receive guidance from them in a relaxed and informal environment. Combinatorics and graph theory are two very active areas of research within the broader field of discrete mathematics, with important ties to disciplines such as statistical physics, probability theory, and computer science. The tutorial speakers for the 2026 workshop are confirmed to be Igor Pak (University of California, Los Angeles), Lutz Warnke (University of California, San Diego), and Fan Wei (Duke University). The tutorial speakers were selected with the goal of representing disparate subfields of combinatorics and graph theory, with Pak as an expert in algebraic combinatorics, Warnke an expert in probabilistic combinatorics, and Wei an expert in extremal combinatorics. The website for the workshop is https://sites.nd.edu/lmcgt/. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The 15th Panhellenic Logic Symposium (PLS 2026) will take place on July 6–10, 2026, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. PLS is a long-standing biennial international conference, established in 1997, that brings together researchers working across the full spectrum of logic, including mathematical logic, philosophical logic, and logic in computer science. The symposium provides a forum for disseminating foundational advances, fostering collaboration across subfields, and supporting the professional development of students and early-career researchers. PLS 2026 is particularly timely as it coincides with the launch of a new MSc program in Logic at the University of Athens, creating a unique opportunity to strengthen connections between U.S. researchers and an emerging international center for logic education and research. Over the years, PLS has fostered numerous transatlantic collaborations, and the 2026 edition is designed to expand this role by deepening U.S. engagement in shaping research and training connections with an emerging international hub for logic. PLS 2026 is expected to host approximately 20 invited speakers and 100 participants. The scientific program will include two tutorials by leading figures in mathematical logic, six plenary lectures, four thematic special sessions, contributed talks selected through peer review, and a poster session for early-career researchers. The meeting will cover core areas of contemporary logic, including mathematical logic, philosophical logic, and logic in computer science. Special sessions will address topics such as the axiom of choice, logics for formal verification, modal logic, and Aristotelian syllogistics, alongside invited and contributed talks in set theory, model theory, and related areas. A distinctive feature of PLS 2026 is the introduction of preparatory tutorials for advanced undergraduate and early-stage graduate students, designed to provide background and context for the main program. Further information about the conference is available at http://panhellenic-logic-symposium.org/15/ This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This award provides support for the Bloomington Geometry Workshop in the years of 2025, 2026, and 2027, with the 2025 meeting taking place at Indiana University on April 4-6, 2025. It also supports the affiliated Geometry, Groups, and Dynamics (GGD) Day, a smaller-scale regional workshop, to be held on a Saturday each spring. The workshop will promote interaction and scientific cooperation among mathematicians engaged in cutting-edge research in geometry and related areas. The workshop emphasizes the training and professional development of graduate students and other early-career researchers. Such experiences are critical to the development of early-career mathematicians, new members of a workforce that will help the nation address the technological challenges of the 21st century. The workshop employs a format that strongly encourages both formal and informal interaction among students, postdoctoral associates, and more established mathematicians. The workshops begins with a Friday afternoon Colloquium by the plenary speaker. The 2025 plenary speaker will be Laura DeMarco. The workshop continues on Saturday with five talks, a curated grouping of junior participants with speakers for lunch, a poster session, and a banquet on Saturday. It concludes with two talks on Sunday. The GGD Day program includes 4 speakers on a single Saturday, held at a location which rotates among institutions in central Indiana and Illinois, including rural, primarily undergraduate-serving, and urban campuses. More information about the BGW can be found at https://bgw.sitehost.iu.edu/ This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The University of California Irvine will organize and the University of California Santa Barbara will host the third Cal-Bridge Summer Institute Alumni Conference, July 20-26, 2025. Participants will be doctoral students who are alumni of Cal-Bridge, a partnership between the University of California (UC) and the California State University (CSU) systems designed to provide pathways into research and the professorate for students from CSU and California community college campuses. Participating scholars will form a peer learning community built on a community-of-practice model. The summer program will focus on how people learn and effective learning strategies, along with facilitating teaching and learning. The group will continue with regular virtual meetings throughout the academic year to promote the exchange of ideas and best practices. The portion of the workshop costs funded by the NSF will support funding for 25 Cal-Bridge Doctoral Scholars to participate in the Summer Institute. The Cal-Bridge Summer Institute, a series of professional development workshops, will have two major thrusts: 1) developing effective pedagogues, and 2) developing effective research leaders. In addition to these, the conference will include a variety of shorter professional development mentorship sessions, and community and cohort building activities. This conference aims to address two systemic points of loss along the professorial and professional researcher pathway for Cal-Bridge Alumni currently in PhD programs outside of the University of California system: completion of the PhD and entrance into the workforce. Specifically, the award will: 1) Broaden the impact of the professional development being offered to a larger group of doctoral scholars, and 2) Provide space for Cal-Bridge Doctoral students to hold discussions and activities to build up their professional network and community. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Nontechnical Description This NSF-supported workshop will identify innovative science use cases for the new, advanced semiconductor packaging facilities being developed now through the “Chips and Science Act of 2022.” This workshop will be hosted in late October 2025 in Austin, TX at The University of Texas at Austin. This site is chosen strategically because it is the site of the Department of Defense’s “Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing” facility, a state-of-the-art advanced electronics packaging center. While several recent meetings have focused on how science can be used to make better chips and microsystems, very few recent meetings have focused on how access to improved chips and microsystems can be used to advance scientific research. This workshop will bring together leading researchers from many different scientific fields alongside electronics packaging experts in government and industry to chart the future of electronics systems development to make better devices and sensors for U.S. scientific research. Technical Description The workshop will engage stakeholders from defense, national laboratories, universities, and industry to explore how this national investment in advanced packaging can be leveraged for research across a broad range of scientific disciplines, including but not limited to biotechnology, geophysics, astronomy, quantum and AI hardware, chemistry, and physics. Experts in these fields will learn from packaging experts what it is possible to achieve using advanced packaging. In addition, this workshop will allow advanced packaging experts and packaging facility directors to learn about the types of packaging architectures and technologies that will be demanded by scientific researchers in the future. This bidirectional exchange of expertise is both timely and critical because scientific research is often a leading-edge market that predicts what future industry needs might be. Therefore, this workshop will provide significant value both to researchers by allowing them to better plan for their future research, and to packaging prototyping facilities by allowing them to find new, future customers that will be willing to produce innovative designs and who are risk-tolerant during the prototyping phase of the development of new packaging technologies. Specific tracks for the conference include: (1) sensors and detectors for physical and chemical science, where the ability to build 3D stacks of interconnected sensors and readout circuits would drive down response time while improving resolution; (2) 3D heterogeneous integration for biomedical and environmental applications, where sensors need to be packaged with memory and logic on-chip for preprocessing of huge amounts of data prior to transmission to a wireless receiver; and (3) quantum and AI hardware, where integration of qubits and microwave-to-optical transduction chips has become stalled out with the limitations imposed by traditional packaging. The core goals of this workshop will be to: (1) nucleate a national academic userbase for the advanced semiconductor packaging facilities being developed now and (2) identify quick-win opportunities for scientific research that leverage these advanced packaging facilities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The purpose of this project is to plan and organize the 2025 National Science Foundation (NSF) Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting of Computer System Research (CSR) Program, held in Boca Raton, FL Sept 17-18, 2025. The purpose of the meeting is to bring together active PIs and Program Directors (PDs) to exchange information and ideas to continue to advance research and explore new computer systems research directions. The program is planned for two days and will include keynotes, presentations by the PIs of featured projects, panel discussions, breakout meetings, poster sessions, an evening reception, and "office hours" with Program Directors. Successful outcomes of this work will inform both PIs and NSF PDs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The Gordon Research Conferences organization has a long history of providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge research in a variety of science and engineering fields, including in coastal ocean dynamics. This grant will provide a partial contribution toward attendee costs for the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Coastal Ocean Dynamics to be held at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire, from June 7–8 and 8–13, 2025, respectively. This GRC, convened every two years, brings together academic and federal researchers to share the latest advances and identify new challenges in coastal physical oceanography and related dynamics. NSF has a long track record of supporting attendee participation in this GRC and the funds will be used to support the attendance of US based students, postdocs, other early career researchers, invited speakers and discussion leaders, and other mid-career and senior researchers serving as mentors. This GRC and GRS support scientific advancement and workforce development that support societal well-being. Coastal oceans play important roles in the Earth system, for example by transforming freshwater discharges from land and by dissipating tidal energy. Understanding physical oceanographic and related processes occurring in coastal oceans is necessary to link ocean observations, models, and predictions to societal needs. By fostering collaboration among experts and mentoring of early-career scientists, the conference drives innovations in ocean modeling, observation, and prediction, improving our understanding of coastal systems, contributing to disaster preparedness and resource management, and benefiting coastal communities. The GRC chairs and vice-chairs, elected by attendees at previous GRCs, have designed the programs for the 2025 GRC and GRS on Coastal Ocean Dynamics to facilitate intellectual exchanges between researchers working in complementary areas of coastal physical oceanography and lead to new collaborations. The GRC plenary talks, given by invited speakers selected by the Program Committee, will cover topics including coastal ocean prediction, novel observing techniques, and machine learning. Scheduled session topics are: Coastal Extremes, Low-Latitude Regions, Ocean – Coastal Seas Interactions, Mid-Latitude Regions, Physical-Biogeochemical Processes, High-Latitude Regions, Observing and Predicting Multi-scale Dynamics in the Ocean, The Global Coastal Ocean, and Techniques and Technologies for Coastal Oceans. The poster sessions are open to presentations on any coastal physical oceanographic or related topic. Discussion Leaders have been recruited to stimulate and moderate discussion after each session. As session chairs, the Discussion Leaders work in advance with the speakers to ensure presentations address new, thought-provoking material and minimize review of existing work. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The Committee on New Researchers of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics will hold its 25th conference at Vanderbilt University during the three days prior to the Joint Statistical Meeting. The event will include oral and poster presentations by new researchers, plenary talks by established researchers, and open discussions on future directions for statistics, probability, and data science. There will also be panel discussions on teaching and mentoring, publishing, funding, and collaborations. The New Researchers Conference is an annual event organized under the auspices of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics by its Committee on New Researchers. It serves as the flagship meeting for early-career researchers in statistics, probability, and data science. In 2025, Vanderbilt University will host the 25th New Researchers Conference on the three days prior to the Joint Statistical Meetings. The primary objective of the conference is to provide a platform for interaction among new researchers and offer opportunities for mentorship from leaders in the field. This conference is explicitly aimed at developing the next generation of researchers in statistics and probability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This grant provides support for the 2025 “Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) Rising Stars” workshop, held in conjunction with the 2025 Annual CPS Principal Investigators’ Meeting at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, March 2025. This workshop seeks to mentor promising PhD students and recent PhD graduates interested in pursuing academic careers in cyber-physical systems and help build that next-generation of outstanding researchers. Cyber-physical systems are engineered systems that deeply integrate computational elements with physical processes and are increasingly essential to the advanced technologies in scientific research and society. This workshop is modeled on prior successful CPS Rising Star workshops. It offers mentoring by leading experts in cyber-physical systems on navigating the early stages of a career in CPS, discussions about the CPS academic job market, guidance on applying for research grants, building research groups and collaborations, and extensive opportunities to network with the broad NSF CPS research communities at both the CPS Rising Stars workshop and the CPS PI Meeting. Based on applications to the workshop, participants are selected by the workshop program committee of CPS researchers and are provided support for the workshop. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This project supports a two-day meeting for scholars supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) program. This meeting is held jointly with a similar meeting for scholars supported by the NSF Cybertraining and the Strengthening the Cyberinfrastructure Professionals Ecosystem (SCIPE) programs. It will serve as a platform for participants to advance the mission of the CSSI program by 1) exchanging Cyberinfrastructure (CI) advancements created by CSSI Principal Investigators (PIs); 2) share best practices for creating and maturing CI; and 3) creating opportunities for collaboration to advance CI development and utilization by interacting with PIs from the Cybertraining, SCIPE, and other NSF communities. The two-day meeting for scholars supported by the National Science Foundation CSSI program will share innovations and best practices for the development of sustainable cyberinfrastructure (CI) among critical stakeholders, including the Cybertraining community, SCIPE community, CSSI community, and Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E) community. These workshop interactions will support the continued development of CI to advance science and engineering, and to broaden the nation’s CI portfolio. These impacts will be assessed by various metrics in a final report, which will be disseminated to participants and available through public services. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This NSF award supports the 2025 Environmental Nanotechnology Gordon Research Conference that will be held in Newry, Maine June 1-6,2025. This conference will explore current, unpublished, state-of-the art research on the applications of nanotechnology for 1) water and food production, 2) energy development; and 3) protection of human and environmental health. Opportunity exists to create novel materials based on the enhanced catalytic, optical, magnetic and electrical properties of nanomaterials across a variety of sectors from human health to water purification, remediation, sensing, energy production, and security. Challenging and rewarding work must be done to seize this opportunity while designing nanotechnology with the environment in mind. The conference attendees will include environmental engineers, environmental scientists, chemists, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Attendees will exchange ideas and promote the development of new convergent research concepts focused on the environmental applications of nanotechnology. Formal and informal discussions facilitated by attendance at this conference will promote further development of the environmental nanotechnology field. Face-to-face interactions between conference attendees will facilitate transdisciplinary research activities. NSF funding will enable the conference organizer to provide travel grants to invited speakers, post-doctoral scholars, graduate students, and junior faculty. The specific objectives of the conference are to 1) provide a forum for generations of ideas regarding the use of nanotechnology to benefit the environment and society through technology development, and 2) to generate ideas and research programs that will foment prevention of potential environmental harms that may result from indiscriminate development and use of nanotechnology. These objectives will be addressed in technical sessions, via submitted posters, and through collaborative activities. This award will enable the conference organizer to provide travel grants to invited speakers, post-doctoral scholars, graduate students, and junior faculty. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

Septins are a large family of proteins with essential functions for the organization and processes in cells. The conference will gather septin researchers from a breadth of disciplines, who do not regularly have the opportunity to interact in other scientific forums, to discuss recent findings and to forge new collaborations for tackling key unknowns and challenges. The conference will foster cohesiveness and long-term continuity by inviting speakers, who are new in this field of research, trainees and early career investigators. Sessions on real-life links and applications of septin research, along with emerging topics, will inspire and motivate attendees to pursue research having Broader Impacts on society that include animal and plant diseases. The program of the FASEB conference entitled "Septins – spatial regulators of cell biology" will feature sessions on problems of septin assembly and function in the morphogenesis of various cell types, and in cellular processes including cell division, cell migration, and intracellular force transduction. Researchers will present and discuss findings from studies that utilize structural, biophysical, genetic, biochemical and pharmacological methods. In addition to daily poster sessions, roundtable panels will facilitate direct interactions with speakers and mentoring discussions on career development. The schedule will also provide opportunities for group activities that will enable networking in a casual and informal setting. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This NSF award supports the octennial Georgia International Topology Conference, to be held at the University of Georgia from May 19 to May 30, 2025. This event is the ninth in a series of conferences, held every eight years since 1961 at the University of Georgia, and will focus on recent developments in geometric topology. Topological spaces are everywhere in mathematics and in fact everywhere in real life. From ordinary 3-dimensional space and the 4-dimensional space-time of relativity to spaces of configurations of complex organic molecules and sets of solutions to systems of many equations, the basic problems of topology are ubiquitous. Geometric topology, in particular, focuses on problems in which a strong visual component of reasoning and problem solving comes into play and is generally the most accessible part of topology for a broad audience. At the same time it is the realm of topology in which some of the hardest outstanding problems remain unsolved. Recent developments to be highlighted at this conference include, for example, the remarkable results of Watanabe, which show that the set of all symmetries of the simplest 4-dimensional object, the 4-dimensional ball, is drastically more complicated than had been suspected eight years ago. This conference focuses on the most significant advancements in geometric topology and related geometry since the last Georgia International Topology Conference in 2017. The topics will highlight exciting new developments including advances in knot theory, four-manifolds, topology of diffeomorphism and embedding spaces, homotopy theory, contact and symplectic topology and geometry, equivariant Floer homology, Floer homotopy theory, geometric group theory, hyperbolic manifolds and dynamical systems. The conference has historically generated tremendous interest among graduate students and recent PhD’s. The speakers at various career stages and the range of topics to be presented will offer students and new PhD’s a valuable taste of what the mathematical research community has to offer. The results of the conference will also be made available to a wider audience through a conference proceedings. The conference website is at: https://topology.franklinresearch.uga.edu/2025GITC This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This award supports the 22nd annual Graduate Student Topology and Geometry Conference to be held at Indiana University Bloomington from April 11-13, 2025. The conference is designed for graduate students and the majority of talks will be given by student participants. Such a gathering provides a chance for young researchers from many institutions and geographic regions to network and speak with experts in their fields. This conference exposes graduate students at all stages of study to the cutting edge of research in topology and geometry. This conference is designed for young researchers to benefit from in different ways: enabling them to present their own work, engage with research in the frontiers of mathematics, sow the seeds of future collaborations, and interact with experts in their various fields. Special attention will be given to a wide variety of topics so that the upcoming generation of mathematicians is aware of the current trends in topology and geometry. To this end, there will be plenary talks by Sarah Koch (University of Michigan), Mark Powell (University of Glasgow), and Inna Zakharevich (Cornell University). There will also be early-career talks by Agustina Czenky (University of Southern California), Beibei Liu (Ohio State University), Annibal M. Medina-Maradones (Western University), Maggie Miller (UT Austin), Carmen Rovi (Loyola University Chicago), and Roberta Shapiro (University of Michigan). The conference URL is https://topologyandgeometry.iu.edu/gstgc25/ This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This NSF award will support US-based participants to attend the 2025 edition of the Great Plains Operator Theory Symposium (GPOTS), to be held at the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras, May 19-23, 2025. GPOTS is a major international conference series on operator theory and operator algebras which is widely attended each year by mathematicians at all career stages from around the world. The 2025 edition of the conference will feature both invited and contributed talks on a wide variety of topics in these areas; participants will discuss important new developments and propose problems for future research. More information about the meeting can be found on the conference website http://math.uprrp.edu/gpots-2025 GPOTS focuses on recent developments in operator algebras and operator theory, including the structure theory of C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras, free probability, noncommutative geometry, and the theory of operator spaces. These areas of mathematics have a distinguished history in the field of analysis, and admit deep applications to many other mathematical fields, such as differential geometry, quantum information theory, dynamical systems, and mathematical physics. The conference will provide a stimulating environment for collaboration and communication between participants. Plenary speakers will showcase the latest trends and advancements in the field, and several sessions of contributed talks will offer participants at all career stages the opportunity to promote their own research and network with colleagues. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The Gordon Research Conference on Lactic Acid Bacteria Biology, Symbioses, and Applications will bring together researchers to explore the beneficial roles of lactic acid bacteria in health, food systems, and the environment. This meeting will unite scientists from fields as diverse as microbiology, nutrition, medicine, and synthetic biology. Lactic acid bacteria are essential for making many fermented foods and are associated with health benefits, but much remains unknown about how they function. The conference will create a unique environment where scientists at all career stages, from students to senior leaders, can share new, unpublished findings and foster collaborations. A companion Gordon Research Seminar, organized by early-career researchers, will emphasize peer networking and professional development. By encouraging the exchange of ideas across disciplines and generations, the meeting will spark new discoveries with the potential to improve human health, advance food innovation and the bioeconomy, and strengthen scientific training. The Gordon Research Conference will focus on advancing mechanistic understanding of lactic acid bacteria across varied environments from fermented foods to the animal gut, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary challenges in microbial genetics, host adaptation, metabolism, and therapeutic development. Specific research areas include the molecular basis of lactic acid bacteria-host interactions, metabolic cross-feeding within microbial communities, bacterial adaptation to different environments, and the development of lactic acid bacteria-based therapeutic delivery systems. The program will feature nine thematic sessions ranging from phage-bacteria dynamics to symbioses in the human gut and vagina. Experimental approaches discussed will include functional genomics, synthetic biology, live microbial imaging, and systems biology analyses. The conference aims to catalyze new collaborations and technical innovations that will push the frontiers of microbiome science, fermentation biology, and microbial therapeutics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This grant supports the 2025 Maine-Québec Number Theory Conference, which will take place on October 4 and 5, 2025 at the University of Maine. The Maine-Quebec Number Theory Conference is an annual conference, held at Laval University in Québec on even years, and at the University of Maine on odd years. It provides a forum for number theorists from New England, Québec, and beyond, to discuss their research and develop connections and collaborations. The conference will feature approximately 35 lectures addressing recent progress in different areas of number theory research. The small scale of the meeting makes this a good opportunity for graduate students and early-career mathematicians to interact with leading researchers. The conference website https://mainequebecnt.github.io/ has more information about the conference, including participant lists, a program, abstracts, and programs from recent years. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The 2025 Midwest Optimization Meeting (Recent Advances in Optimization, Control Theory, and Applications) will be the latest instance of an annual conference that began at Western Michigan University in 1997, and which for many years has provided a unique educational opportunity for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty. Optimization is one of the major branches of applied mathematics, and has significant applications in different parts of science and engineering. The 2025 Midwest Optimization Meeting will feature plenary speakers who will review the most recent advances and trends in optimization, as well as recent applications to machine/deep learning and data science. Conference support will allow graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty to attend, to contribute talks, and to interact with leading researchers in this vast and rapidly expanding area of study. Thematic areas of emphasis for the 2025 Midwest Optimization Meeting include non-smooth optimization, control theory, and computational mathematics and large-scale optimization. Applications within these areas include optimization in data science, such as over-parameterization in deep learning, distributed federated learning, control theory in deep learning, stochastic optimization, parametric optimization, and statistical optimization. Conference plenary speakers are experts in variational and convex analysis, optimization in machine learning/data science, and optimal control. The conference website, with registration link, travel information, and conference schedule is at https://25midwestoptimization.vfairs.com/en/, and will be updated frequently in the time leading up to the event. The event will be open to anyone interested in the conference themes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The robotics field is experiencing tremendous growth due to algorithmic and technological advances, the availability of common low-cost sensors and platforms, the standardization of open-source development, and large-scale industrial initiatives. These advancements, coupled with a rapidly growing cohort of talented, highly skilled roboticists, combine to accelerate the transition of robotics from research labs to real-world deployment---reshaping industries, enhancing daily life, and transforming the way we interact with technology in our homes, workplaces, and public spaces. A key driver of this progress is the presence of close-knit communities of robotics researchers and practitioners from academia and industry, who foster collaboration, exchange cutting-edge ideas, mentor the next generation of roboticists, and bridge the gap between fundamental research and real-world applications. The Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW) brings together roboticists from in and around the Midwest, providing a unique opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share their work with others and to network in a focused setting, with the goal of creating a more cohesive and vibrant robotics community in the Midwest. A defining feature of MWRW is its invited talks that showcase senior Ph.D. students and early career (i.e., pre-tenure) faculty, providing them with valuable exposure, increasing the visibility of their work within the robotics community, and offering opportunities to receive insightful feedback from senior researchers. This award supports non-local students in participating in MWRW 2025, which will take place June 2–3, 2025 in Chicago, IL. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This award supports participants in the Midwest Several Complex Variables Conference to be held at Texas A&M University during May 16-18, 2025. The Midwest Several Complex Variables Conference series is one of the most important venues for researchers in the field of several complex variables and has influenced generations of researchers at all career stages. This year’s conference will be held for the first time at Texas A&M University and will provide an excellent opportunity for graduate students and early-career researchers to learn about the latest techniques and trends in several complex variables. The conference program includes lectures by leading researchers as well as early-career mathematicians, a poster session for graduate students, and an open problem session for conference participants. More information can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/mwscv2025/home. The Midwest Several Complex Variables Conference at Texas A&M University will showcase recent developments in several complex variables, functional analysis, operator theory, complex geometry, and related fields. The main topics of this year’s meeting include the Cauchy-Riemann operator, the complex Laplacian, and their applications; the Kohn Laplacian and CR geometry; reproducing kernels and invariant metrics; function theory in several complex variables; and the interplay between several complex variables and operator theory. These areas have witnessed significant progress in recent years. The conference will bring together leading experts, early-career researchers, and graduate students in several complex variables and related fields to discuss these recent developments and explore new research frontiers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

The Neuroethology Gordon Research Conference brings together 200 scientists at multiple career stages and from various training disciplines to discuss how studying different animal behaviors reveals shared mechanisms of neural control. This fundamental research furthers basic biological knowledge with positive implications for technology and health. The meeting fills an unusual niche because it includes research on a range of animals, in natural and lab environments, assayed by a broad range of experimental approaches. This makes it an idea-generating engine for new research directions and collaborations. Expert speakers are invited but most attendees come from an open application process. Early career scientists are welcomed into a larger community with sustained time for discussion during the talks, poster sessions, and shared meals. NSF support is critical to maximize attendance. While there are many venues to share scientific progress, The Neuroethology Gordon Conference emphasizes unpublished research and cross-disciplinary approaches. Developmental biologists, comparative anatomists, animal behaviorists, evolutionary geneticists, and molecular biologists have a lot to share with each other if they can make the time to communicate. This meeting is specifically designed to foster new scientific ideas and directions by bringing together representatives of several intellectual lineages in an environment that facilitates the sustained discussions needed to find common ground. Expert speakers, both early career and established investigators, are invited, while posters are presented by applicants. The meeting was established in 1999 and this year’s focus is on current expression of influential ideas from the history of ethology. Topics include Krogh’s Principle, Extended Phenotypes, and Tinbergen’s Questions, along with sessions on specialized sensors, adaptations to extreme environments, and the cognitive capacities of invertebrates. This meeting is critical for the neuroethology community to flourish, maximizing its potential for innovation and discovery. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

This project supports a two-day meeting for leaders and researchers from the National Science Foundation (NSF) CyberTraining and Strengthening the Cyberinfrastructure Professionals Ecosystem (SCIPE) programs. The event will be held alongside the meeting for the NSF Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) program. It will serve as a platform for participants to advance the mission of the CyberTraining and SCIPE programs by exchanging progress and experiences in training Cyberinfrastructure (CI) professionals, disseminating best practices in training CI professionals among the CyberTraining and SCIPE communities, emphasizing the importance of these programs to colleagues from the CSSI program; and creating opportunities for collaboration to advance the training of CI professionals both within the CyberTraining and SCIPE communities and across the CSSI community. The CyberTraining/SCIPE PI meeting aims to advance the community-building efforts of previous workshops by providing a platform for principal investigators (PIs) to share technical information about their projects with peers, NSF program directors, and other stakeholders, including the CyberTraining, SCIPE, CSSI, and Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E) communities. These workshop interactions will support the continued development of CI and SCIPE professionals, who will go on to advance, deploy, and utilize the nation's CI resources and services. These professionals will accelerate research in science and engineering, furthering the impact of NSF support. This meeting will include multiple NSF programs, implement highly interactive program activities, and encourage reports from participants in small group discussions. These impacts will be assessed by various metrics in a final report, which will be disseminated through public services and circulated to participants and the broader scientific community. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

For the last decade the Pan American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (PASEDB) has held an international biennial meeting. Each of the previous meetings attracted a large community of scientists working in the field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EvoDevo) indicating the critical need in the community for this scientific and educational exchange. EvoDevo is a multidisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of Evolutionary Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics, and Physiology. The focus of this sixth meeting will be to highlight recent breakthroughs in comparing similarities and differences in the embryonic development of a diverse set of animals ranging from jellyfish to humans. The PASEDB meeting also provides an invaluable platform for young faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students to present their results, to learn about the latest research and technological advances in evolutionary developmental biology, and to expand their professional network. This award will support early career scientists (junior faculty members, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students) from the United States to attend the meeting. In short, this award will help provide a forum that is vital for the continued growth of the EvoDevo community. A community that is essential to the progress and innovation in several fields, including those directly relevant to human development and health. The NSF funding for the PASEDB meeting provides the society with the ability to bring early career scientists (assistant professors), postdoctoral associates as well as graduate and undergraduate students from the United States to the biennial meeting. Scientific sessions include topics such as genomic basis of developmental evolution, the developmental origins of novelty, emerging research organisms, developmental biology in a changing world, cell biology in EvoDevo, neuro EvoDevo, new tools in EvoDevo, development and evolution, education in EvoDevo, external influences on development, genetic basis of trait variation, and comparative omics. The organizing committee has planned for a venue to conduct lively poster sessions that offer important opportunities for early career scientists to share their work in progress. Importantly, many students are attending their first conference or presenting preliminary results for the first time in this welcoming atmosphere and inspiring setting. Attendees will also be able to participate in workshops designed to address professional development, and successful strategies in academia such as “mentoring students and postdocs”, successful delivery of chalk talks and teaching demos during job interviews” and “how to succeed in teaching in your first year”. These are critical topics for increasing recruitment and retention of trainees and new faculty in the field. Finally, the meeting will feature an all-postdoc symposium to showcase future PIs in the field and offer an early career award for new EvoDevo faculty. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY The purpose of the conference support request is to enable the participation of early career attendees and key invited speakers to the 2025 Physical Metallurgy Gordon Research Conference (GRC), which has a long history of catalyzing new directions and sparking critical discussions of fundamental concepts in the science and engineering of metals in complex, heterogeneous applications. The Physical Metallurgy GRC is a key network- and community-building event for all metallurgists and materials scientists, from graduate students, post-docs, and other early career scientists, to senior scientists and engineers. The unique format of Gordon Research Conferences with: in-depth presentations at the forefront of science with equal time for discussion; integrated poster sessions where all attendees, regardless of their career levels, are encouraged to present their work; and informal discussion sessions and workshops, provide a forum to probe our scientific understanding and share knowledge and expertise. The 2025 Physical Metallurgy GRC is subtitled “Metallurgy to Enable Next Generation Engineering”, reflecting the community’s commitment to the principles of the National Science Foundation’s efforts to support fundamental science that will lead to a better future for generations to come. The GRC will be preceded by an associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) where early career researchers present and discuss their work and participate in mentoring and career-building activities. The GRS will be held on July 5-6, 2025 and the GRC will be on July 6-11, 2025, at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. TECHNICAL SUMMARY One of the most pressing challenges and opportunities for the physical metallurgy community lies in our ability to harness the latest scientific advances to have positive impacts on the environment, economy, and society. The community must learn to design, produce, and implement metals and alloys in a rapid and sustainable manner. Therefore, the principal research objective of this meeting is to explore the complex relationships between processing, structure, properties, and performance that are needed to overcome acute barriers to discovery and implementation of sustainable metals in a wide range of applications. Advances in physical metallurgy are needed to enable forward-looking concepts in light-weighting, recycling, extreme environments, magnetic/energy applications and others. The technical approach for this meeting will focus on the fundamental scientific underpinnings (material defects, thermodynamics, kinetic interactions and microstructure) necessary to achieve these goals. The oral and poster sessions at the GRC and GRS will provide a robust venue for discussion of the fundamental science advances, methods, and tools, with the anticipated outcome of providing a vision for using physical metallurgical sciences to enable discoveries. The impact of the meeting will be realized through the engagement of the research community to harness the dialogs of the meeting toward accelerating design and development of advanced metallic materials. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.