One of the guiding principles behind the West Coast Number Theory conference is that every idea is worth 15 minutes. This means that there is not a formal, established program of talks before the conference begins. The list of speakers and topics is decided upon at the first business meeting, traditionally held after the opening banquet or reception.
This year, the First Business Meeting will be held at the Virtual Reception, on December 15, 2022.
For this year’s schedule, see WCNT 2022 Schedule.
WCNT 2022 Is a Hybrid Event
WCNT 2022 will be a hybrid event—with the first half primarily-virtual (Dec 15-17, 2022), and the second primarily-in-person (Dec 18-19, 2022).
- The virtual events will take place on zoom
- The in-person events will take place at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA.
To improve accessibility, childcare will be available for the entire duration of the conference (both virtual and in-person) at Asilomar.
Dec 15-17, 2022: Primarily-Virtual Meeting
Virtual Reception & First Business Meeting
Traditionally, West Coast Number Theory starts a banquet. That’s a little hard to do virtually, so we’re going to do the next best thing: a virtual reception. Join us on Zoom at 4pm Pacific, we’ll officially welcome everybody to the event, introduce the format of the primarily-virtual portion of the conference, review the rules of the road, familiarize you with the online tools we will be using, and confirm talk titles and session chairs.
Finally, we will break up into table-sized breakout rooms to begin the informal meeting, greeting, and catching up. We’ll probably shuffle the rooms a few times so you get a chance to meet the other participants.
At the conclusion of the virtual reception, you should have a good idea of what we will be doing, how we will be doing it, and who else will be there!
IMPORTANT: If you cannot make the first business meeting, but do plan to give a talk, please send your talk title and any time/day constraints you have to info@westcoastnumbertheory.org so we can make sure you are on the schedule.
Dec 18-19: Primarily in-person Meeting
The primarily-in-person portion of WCNT 2022 will be held from Dec 18-19 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds.
Talks, problem sessions, and community sessions will be presented in-person during these days. We are planning to record the talks from the primarily-in-person portion of the conference and to make them available online for all participants. However, we will not be live-streaming talks (we’ll save that challenge for a future edition of the conference).
Banquet
There will be an in-person banquet on Dec 18. Tickets for this banquet are $65. (Kids are $30). More details will be sent shortly
Format of the Talks
The length allowed for all talks is 20 minutes (usually, 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions). The second and fourth days of the conference will be full days of talks, while the third will have talks in the morning, leaving the afternoon for our “afternoon off” for sightseeing and recreation, or travel (if you’re attending the in-person part of the event).
Talks given during the primarily-virtual portion of the event will be recorded (with permission of the presenter), and made available for time-shifted viewing by other participants.
Talks given during the in-person session will be recorded, and made available to virtual participants for time-shifted (offline) viewing. We will not be streaming talks in real time, nor taking questions from virtual participants (not this year, anyway).
Problem Sessions
Several problem sessions will be scheduled during the conference, where unsolved problems, half-baked ideas, questions pertaining to number theory, and notes about previously posed problems are discussed. Think of this as a friendly place to talk about the Number Theory questions that have you stumped, or the half-baked ideas you have for solving them. After the event, these discussions are bundled up, edited, and published on the Problem Sessions page.
Community Sessions
Building on last year’s successful inaugural edition, these are themed sessions where we dig into relevant, but “non-mathematical” problems of interest to number theorists. Last year’s topics, for instance, included: mental health, finding collaborators, career changes, non-academic career options, and inclusion.
Resources available
For this year’s virtual event, we will have a Zoom chat (with breakout rooms), Slack, and a Cocalc (LaTeX-enabled math notebook) instance available for the problem sessions. We may try other tools as the event proceeds. More details will be posted on the conference’s Slack, and introduced during the opening reception.
Past Schedules
To give you and idea of the participant list and the wide variety and level of talks one can expect at this conference, schedules from recent conferences are available online. (Note: These documents may not reflect last minute changes that were made to the program during the conference itself.)
West Coast Number Theory 2022 