December 2003 - Categories - categories.org.au

80'th Peripatetic Seminar on Sheaves and Logic
by Prof. Peter Johnstone 22 Dec '03

22 Dec '03

It is proposed to hold the 80th meeting of the Peripatetic Seminar on Sheaves and Logic in Cambridge during the weekend of 3/4 April 2004. Further details of the arrangements will be announced by mid-February; in the meantime, any queries may be addressed to the organizers, Eugenia Cheng <e.cheng2(a)dpmms.cam.ac.uk>, Martin Hyland <martin(a)dpmms.cam.ac.uk> or Peter Johnstone <ptj(a)dpmms.cam.ac.uk>.

1 0

Category Theory and Computer Science, TAC Special Volume
by Richard Blute 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

SPECIAL VOLUME OF THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF CATEGORIES (TAC) Proceedings, Category Theory and Computer Science CTCS'02 Guest Editors - Rick Blute(Ottawa) and Richard Wood (Dalhousie) Second Call for Papers http://www.tac.mta.ca/tac/ This special volume of Theory and Applications of Categories is devoted to the proceedings of the 2002 conference Category Theory and Computer Science, held at the University of Ottawa. The purpose of the conference series is the advancement of the foundations of computing using the tools of category theory. Indeed, category theory provides one of the key tools in the analysis of the interaction between logic and the theory of computation. The extent to which category theory has influenced these areas can be seen from the following list of topics, which are typical of the interests of this conference: -coalgebras and computing -concurrent and distributed systems -constructive mathematics -declarative programming and term rewriting -domain theory and topology -foundations of computer security -linear logic -modal and temporal logics -models of computation -program logics, data refinement, and specification -programming language semantics -type theory The list is by no means exhaustive. This special volume is devoted not just to journal versions of the papers which appeared in the proceedings, but is intended to showcase papers which emphasize any of the above topics. Papers will be refereed to the usual high standards of TAC. * Submission deadline: January 5th, 2004. * Submissions, in pdf or ps format, should be sent to Rick Blute at <rblute@mathstat@.uottawa.ca>. * Questions (e.g., about the appropriateness of a submission) and comments should be directed to the same address. * To expedite handling, authors should prepare their manuscripts following the instructions for contributors described in <http://www.tac.mta.ca/tac/authinfo.html>

1 0

LICS 2004: 2nd CFP
by Alex Simpson 12 Dec '03

12 Dec '03

CALL FOR PAPERS Nineteenth Annual IEEE Symposium on LOGIC IN COMPUTER SCIENCE (LICS 2004) July 14th - 17th, 2004, Turku, Finland http://www.lfcs.informatics.ed.ac.uk/lics/ The LICS Symposium is an annual international forum on theoretical and practical topics in computer science that relate to logic in a broad sense. We invite submissions on that theme. Suggested, but not exclusive, topics of interest for submissions include: automata theory, automated deduction, categorical models and logics, concurrency and distributed computation, constraint programming, constructive mathematics, database theory, domain theory, finite model theory, proof theory, formal aspects of program analysis, formal methods, hybrid systems, lambda and combinatory calculi, linear logic, logical aspects of computational complexity, logics in artificial intelligence, logical representation of knowledge, logics of programs, logic programming, modal and temporal logics, model checking, programming language semantics, reasoning about security, rewriting, specifications, type systems and type theory, and verification. Important Dates: Authors are required to submit electronically a paper title and a short abstract of about 100 words before submitting the extended abstract of the paper. Titles & Short Abstracts Due : January 26, 2004 Extended Abstracts Due : February 2, 2004 Author Notification : March 27, 2004 Camera-ready Papers Due : April 25, 2004 All deadlines are firm; late submissions will not be considered. Detailed information about electronic paper submission will be posted at the LICS website. Submission Instructions: Extended abstracts must be submitted electronically in the IEEE Proceedings two-column camera-ready format. Each abstract must be in English and provide sufficient detail to allow the program committee to assess the merits of the paper. It should begin with a succinct statement of the issues, a summary of the main results, and a brief explanation of their significance and relevance to the conference and to computer science, all phrased for the non-specialist. Technical development directed to the specialist should follow. References and comparisons with related work should be included. Extended abstracts may be no longer than 10 pages including references, and must be formatted in the IEEE Proceedings two-column camera-ready style (IEEE style files will be accessible from the LICS website). If necessary, detailed proofs of technical results can be included in a clearly-labelled appendix in the same two-column format following the 10-page extended abstract. This material may be read at the discretion of the program committee. Extended abstracts not conforming to the above requirements concerning format and length may be rejected without further consideration. The results must be unpublished and not submitted for publication elsewhere, including the proceedings of other symposia or workshops. All authors of accepted papers will be expected to sign copyright release forms. One author of each accepted paper will be expected to present it at the conference. Short Presentations: LICS 2004 will have a session of short (5--10 minutes) presentations. This session is intended for descriptions of work in progress, student projects, and relevant research being published elsewhere; other brief communications may be acceptable. Submissions for these presentations, in the form of short abstracts (1 or 2 pages long), should be entered at the LICS 2004 submission site between March 27th and April 4th, 2004. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by April 17th, 2004. Kleene Award for Best Student Paper: An award in honor of the late S.C. Kleene will be given for the best student paper, as judged by the program committee. For a submission to be eligible, the research presented in the paper must have been carried out while all authors were full-time students. The program committee may decline to make the award or may split it among several papers. Affiliated Workshops: As in previous years, there will be a number of workshops affiliated with LICS 2004; information will be posted at the LICS website. Program Chair: Harald Ganzinger MPI Informatik, Saarbruecken, Germany http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/~hg/ Program Committee: Rajeev Alur, U. of Pennsylvania Andrew Appel, Princeton U. Albert Atserias, UPC, Barcelona Franz Baader, Dresden U. Samuel Buss, U. of California, San Diego Roberto Di Cosmo, U. de Paris VII Gilles Dowek, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris Harald Ganzinger, MPI, Saarbruecken (chair) Martin Hofmann, LMU Muenchen Achim Jung, U. of Birmingham Kim Larsen, Aalborg U. Leonid Libkin, U. of Toronto Rocco de Nicola, U. di Firenze Damian Niwinski, Warsaw U. Prakash Panangaden, McGill U., Montreal Albert Rubio, UPC, Barcelona Vitaly Shmatikov, SRI International Moshe Vardi, Rice U., Houston Helmut Veith, TU Wien Andrei Voronkov, U. of Manchester Conference Chair: Lauri Hella Department of Math., Stat., and Phil. Kanslerinrinne 1 33014 University of Tampere, Finland Email: lauri.hella(a)uta.fi Workshops Chair: Phil Scott, U. of Ottawa Email: phil(a)site.uottawa.ca Publicity Chair: Alex Simpson, U. of Edinburgh Email: Alex.Simpson(a)ed.ac.uk General Chair: Phokion G. Kolaitis, UC Santa Cruz Email: kolaitis(a)cse.ucsc.edu Organizing Committee: S. Abramsky, A. Broder, E. Clarke, A. Felty, H. Ganzinger, H. Gabow, J. Halpern, L. Hella, U. Kohlenbach, P. Kolaitis (chair), D. Leivant, G. Longo, H. Mairson, A. Middeldorp, J. Mitchell, M. Nielsen, P. Panangaden, G. Plotkin, F. Pfenning, P. Scott, R. Shore, A. Simpson, I.A. Stewart. Advisory Board: Y. Gurevich, C. Kirchner, D. Kozen, U. Martin, L. Pacholski, V. Pratt, A. Scedrov, M.Y. Vardi, G. Winskel. Sponsorship: The symposium is sponsored by the IEEE Technical Committee on Mathematical Foundations of Computing in cooperation with the Association for Symbolic Logic, and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science. Invited Speakers: The following distinguished speakers have agreed to give invited talks at LICS 2004 : Samson Abramsky (Oxford U.), Robert Harper (Carnegie Mellon University), Alexander Razborov (IAS, Princeton, and Steklov Math. Inst., Moscow), Davide Sangiorgi (U. di Bologna), Igor Walukiewicz (U. Bordeaux), and Mihalis Yannakakis (Stanford U.). Collocated events: ICALP'04 will be collocated with LICS'04; for details see http://www.math.utu.fi/ICALP04/.

1 0

CORRECTION: MFPS XX
by Steve Awodey 11 Dec '03

11 Dec '03

In this announcement: > >======================================================= > > FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT > MFPS 20 > Twentieth Workshop on the > Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics > Carnegie Mellon University > May 23 - 26, 2004 > > Co-located with Annual Association of Symbolic Logic Meeting the session: > > Domain Theory - organized by Steve Awodey (CMU) > should read: Logical Foundations of Programming Semantics (joint session with ASL) - organized by Steve Awodey (CMU) thanks, Steve

1 0

MFPS XX
by Michael Mislove 10 Dec '03

10 Dec '03

Dear Colleagues, Below is the first announcement about MFPS XX. The meeting will take place on the CMU campus in May, co-located with the annual ASL meeting that also will be held on the CMU campus. All interested parties are invited to submit contributed talks for the open sessions of the meeting. Best regards, Mike Mislove ======================================================= FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT MFPS 20 Twentieth Workshop on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics Carnegie Mellon University May 23 - 26, 2004 Co-located with Annual Association of Symbolic Logic Meeting The twentieth workshop on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics will take place on the campus on Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA USA from May 23 through May 26, 2004. This year, the conference is co-locating with the annual meeting of the Association of Symbolic Logic. For more information about the annual ASL meeting, see http://www.aslonline.org/ The goals of the MFPS series have been to provide a forum for researchers in all areas surrounding semantics to present their latest research results, and to improve communication and interactions between mathematicians, logicians and computer scientists who work in these areas. The areas of relevance include category theory, domain theory, logic and topology on the mathematics side, and type theory, semantics, and the design, verification and implementation of programming languages on the computer science side. The meetings alternate between a large conference format featuring invited speakers and refereed, contributed papers, on the one hand, and more informal workshops featuring survey talks by invited speakers and contributed talks by researchers about their latest research, on the other. MFPS XX is a workshop year, and so we will follow the workshop format, including contributed talks by participants (see below). MFPS XX will feature six invited, plenary talks, each with a complementary special session on a topic closely related to the interests of the speaker. The plenary speakers are: Christel Baier (Bonn) Radha Jagadeesan (DePaul) Pat Lincoln (SRI) Luke Ong (Oxford) Dana Scott (CMU) - Joint ASL/MFPS Lecture Alex Simpson (Edinburgh) As indicated, each of these talks will be followed by a special session. These sessions and their organizers are: Model checking - organized by Professor Baier and Prakash Panagaden (McGill) Hybrid systems - organized by Professor Jagadeesan, Michael Mislove (Tulane) and Prakash Panagaden Security - organized by Dr. Lincoln and Dr. Catherine Meadows (NRL) Game Theory and Semantics - organized by Dr. Ong, Stephen Brookes (CMU) and Michael Mislove Domain Theory - organized by Steve Awodey (CMU) Topology and Domain Theory - organized by Dr. Simpson and Achim Jung (Birmingham) In addition to the plenary talks and sessions, the program will include talks contributed by the participants. Those interested in participating in the meeting by contributing a talk are invited to send a title and short abstract to the email address mfps(a)math.tulane.edu If a participant believes his or her talk is appropriate to one of the special sessions, then this should be noted in the email message. Slots for talks will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. MFPS is organized by Stephen Brookes (CMU), Achim Jung (Birmingham), Catherine Meadows (NRL), Michael Mislolve (Tulane) and Prakash Panagaden (McGill). The local arrangements for MFPS XX will be overseen by Professor Brookes. More information about MFPS XX will be available on the home page, http://www.math.tulane.edu/~mfps/mfps20.html when it is available. In particular, information about lodging, conference registration, and possible support will be announced there and by additional emails. We anticipate support from the US Office of Naval Research, and component of this usually includes support for women, minorities and graduate students who wish to participate in the meeting. Questions or comments about the meeting can be directed to mfps(a)math.tulane.edu

1 0

The category of probabilistic mappings
by Franck van Breugel 09 Dec '03

09 Dec '03

I am looking for F.W. Lawvere. The category of probabilistic mappings. Preprint, 1962. Does someone have an (electronic) copy? Franck van Breugel York University Department of Computer Science 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M3J 1P3

1 0

message from Joel Berman (fwd)
by Vaughan Pratt 07 Dec '03

07 Dec '03

It is with deep sadness that I announce to you that Professor Willem Blok, a renowned mathematician and Professor at the University of Illinois, died tragically in an automobile accident on November 30. He was 56. In addition to his wife Mary Ogilvie, he is survived by his son Philip, aged 7, mother Yeltge, and brothers Rieuwert, Jan, Cees, and Gerard. Many of us knew Wim as a fine mathematician and colleague. In addition to mathematics, he was an accomplished musician and birder. He traveled the world, lecturing on mathematics, exploring wild and remote areas, and observing animals and birds in their natural habitats. Above all he was a wonderful friend and companion. We will miss him dearly. There will be a memorial service on Monday, December 8, at 5:00 pm at Unity Temple, Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60301. Unity Temple is at the corner of Lake and Kenilworth Mary has asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Philip Blok Education Fund for the education of Philip and mailed to Ms. Carolyn Eloby, Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 851 South Morgan, Chicago IL, 60607. Our deepest sympathy and condolences go out to Wim's family. This is a tragedy that will deeply affect many in our field who knew Wim for so many years. Joel Berman

1 0

Mathematics of Program Construction
by Jeremy.Gibbons＠comlab.ox.ac.uk 05 Dec '03

05 Dec '03

[We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this announcement.] MPC 2004 7th International Conference on MATHEMATICS OF PROGRAM CONSTRUCTION ----------------------------------- http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Projects/MPC2004 Organised in conjunction with AMAST '04 12--14 July, 2004 Stirling, Scotland, UK CALL FOR PAPERS This conference aims to promote the development of mathematical principles and techniques that are demonstrably useful in the process of constructing computer programs, whether implemented in hardware or software. The focus of the conference is on techniques that combine precision with conciseness, enabling programs to be constructed by formal calculation. Within this theme, the scope of the conference is very diverse. We welcome contributions to programming methodology (for example, formal methods for program specification and transformation), to programming paradigms (for example, generic programming techniques and type systems) and to language design (for example, programming calculi and programming language semantics). Theoretical contributions are welcome provided their relevance to program construction is evident; discussion of applications is welcome provided the mathematical basis is evident. The conference will be organized in conjunction with the AMAST '04 Conference. There will also be a number of co-located workshops, including CMPP. Proceedings will be published in a volume of Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science. IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for submission of papers: 31st January, 2004 Notification of acceptance/rejection: 5th March, 2004 Final papers due: 26th April, 2004 Full papers should be submitted in Postscript or pdf format by e-mail to patwell(a)cs.cornell.edu by 31st January, 2004. PROGRAM COMMITTEE Roland Backhouse, Stephen Bloom, Eerke Boiten, Jules Desharnais, Thorsten Ehm, Jeremy Gibbons, Ian Hayes, Eric Hehner, Johan Jeuring, Dexter Kozen (chair), Rustan Leino, Hans Leiss, Christian Lengauer, Lambert Meertens, Bernhard Moeller, David Naumann, Alberto Pardo, Georg Struth, Jerzy Tiuryn, Mark Utting FURTHER INFORMATION Please refer to the web page for further details. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Projects/MPC2004

1 0

Threatened closure of mathematics at Bangor
by Ronald Brown 04 Dec '03

04 Dec '03

Dear All, I am sure the subject matter is news to you all, and I am now asking for help. I am sure you would want to know before the axe falls. Details of the problem are below, but any email or fax expressing support for maths research work at Bangor, and dismay at the proposed threat to the international research reputation of the University of Wales, Bangor, would be welcomed by all of us in maths. It could also say that information on the threat comes from me, since I have no contract with the University, and it should ask for this view to be presented to Council at its meeting on Friday, Oct 4, at 1015 am. The crucial variable is the number of messages received. These would also be helpful as evidence for future plans. Any email or fax should go by tomorrow (Thursday, December 4) at the latest to Professor Roy Evans, Vice Chancellor, University of Wales, Bangor fax: +44 1248 383 296 email: roy.evans(a)bangor.ac.uk Details: Maths has a declining recruitment over the last few years, and it is in this session under 10. The financial system in place is that maths get less credit for service teaching than for teaching of students registered for a maths degree, and the current situation is worse in that classes of 60 are taught by maths staff with financial credit going wholly to the School of Informatics, and not to the maths group, which is somehow accounted separately. In any case, no recruitment budget for maths has been assigned over the last few years. Also attacked at Senate was the research reputation of Mathematics at Bangor, so this is where you can all really help. I was there as an observer, so did not speak, and am now in a position to argue that Senate had inadequate information in this respect. So if you have contrary views, please ask the VC to present these to Council on Friday morning. I have proposed that Council should reject the Senate motion, and ask that adequate funds should be assigned to recruitment in maths with clear and achievable goals. The Senate motion is actually to sack some staff and then to ask for certain milestones, to be achieved, with apparently zero resources. Ronnie r.brown(a)bangor.ac.uk http://www.bangor.ac.uk/~mas010

1 0

nominations for Goedel Prize 2004
by Pierre-Louis Curien 03 Dec '03

03 Dec '03

This message is to draw your attention on the Goedel Prize http://www.math.utu.fi/ICALP04/godel2004.html which is probably still not well-enough known in the communities of programming languages, global computing, semantics, and logical / categorical / probabilistic foundations. The deadline for nominations is Januuary 10, 2004 As a newly appointed member of the jury, I encourage submissions in this general area of researchy! Please do not hesitate to forward this message to other relevant mailing lists. Best regards, Pierre-Louis Curien

1 0