Generalized Quadrangles, Ovals, and Related Structures:
A Conference Honoring Stanley E. Payne

in conjunction with the
 
Finite Geometry and Combinatorics
AMS-Central Special Session

March 16-18, 2007
Oxford, Ohio
USA

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
StanleyFest 2007 Raison d'être
This conference is intended to honor the life and ongoing work of Stanley E. Payne and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his first paper, "A consequence of the non-existence of certain generalized polygons" [Duke Math Jour. 34 (1967) 555-559].  Over the years that have followed, Stanley has published nearly 100 papers in the study of generalized quadrangles, ovals, ovoids, and related geometries.  This conference is being organized in conjunction with the AMS Central Section's Special Session in Finite Geometry and Combinatorics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where Stanley spent the first part of his career before moving to his current position at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.

Tentative StanleyFest Schedule (last updated  2/27/07)

Friday Morning, March 16,         Welcome, Introduction and Overview
10:30 - 10: 55 AM                     Generalized quadrangles, ovals, and related structures: Some of Stan's favorivte things from the past 40 years
                                                  Mark Miller (Marietta College)

11:00 - 11:25 AM                     Some remarks on Figueroa planes
                                                 Julia M. Nowlin Brown (York University)    

Friday Afternoon, March 16,    Generalized Polygons and Polar Geometries (AMS Finite Geometry and Combinatorics Session II)
                                                Chaired by  J. Chris Fisher (University of Regina)

3:00 - 3:45  PM                       Generalized quadrangles and the BLT-property 
                                                Joseph A. Thas (Universiteit Gent)
 
4:00 - 4:25 PM                        Generalized quadrangles of order s with a hyperbolic line consisting of regular points 
                                                Bart De Bruyn (Universiteit Gent)

4:30 - 4:55 PM                        A generalization of  generalized m-gons via truncated root systems of affine Lie algebras 
                                               Andrew J. Woldar (Villanova University)
 
5:00 - 5:25 PM                        The full automorphism group of a class of geometries constructed from classical polar spaces
                                                Stefaan De Winter (Universiteit Gent)

5:30 - 6:00 PM                        Projective grassmannians in polar grassmannians
                                                Rieuwert Blok (Bowling Green University)

Saturday Morning, March 17,    Algebraic Considerations in Planes and Related Structures (AMS Finite Geometry and Combinatorics Session III)
                                                 Chaired by  Minerva Cordero-Epperson (The University of Texas at Arlington)

8:30 - 9:15 AM                        The p-modular cohomology algebra of finite p-groups, Pauli operators, and symplectic forms
                                                Koen J. R. Thas (Universiteit Gent)
 
9:30 - 9:55 AM                       Connections between homology groups, planes, and flocks of quadratic cones
                                                Esteban Diaz Morales (University of Iowa)

10:00 - 10:25 AM                    Translation planes of order qⁿ admitting a collineation group of order (qⁿ - 1) / (qⁿ + 1)
                                                Oscar Vega (University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center)
 
10:30 - 10:55 AM                    The general structure of the projective planes admitting PSL(2, q) as a collineation group
                                                Allesandro Montinaro (Universita' Degli Studi di Lecce)

11:00 - 11:25 AM                    On a generalization of cyclic semifields
                                                Giuseppe Marino (Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II" )

Saturday Afternoon, March 17, Subgeometries and Combinatorial Structures (AMS Finite Geometry and Combinatorics Session IV)
                                                 Chaired by  Gary Ebert (University of Delaware)

3:00 - 3:45  PM                       Subgeometry partitions of projective spaces
                                                Norman L. Johnson (University of Iowa)
 
4:00 - 4:25 PM                        Investigation of some association schemes on 40 points
                                                Mikhail H. Klin (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

4:30 - 4:55 PM                        Association schemes from truncated quadrics
                                                Stephen C. Flink (University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center)
 
5:00 - 5:25 PM                        Spin-embeddings, two-intersection sets and two-weights codes
                                                Ilaria Cardinali (Universita' di Siena)

5:30 - 6:15 PM                        Open Problem Session

Saturday Evening, March 17

6:30 - 8:00 PM                        StanleyFest Banquet

8:00 - 8:45 PM                       A Tale of Two Theorems / My Friend Stan
                                               Ernest Shult (Kansas State University)   

Sunday, March 18,                   Hyperovals, Arcs, and Ovoids
                                                Chaired by  Sylvia Hobart (University of Wyoming)

9:00 - 9:45 AM                        Groups of hyperovals in Desarguesian planes
                                                Tim Penttila (Colorado State University)
 
10:00 - 10:25 AM                    On the classification of hyperovals
                                                Ryan M Pedersen (University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center)
 
10:30 - 10:55 AM                    To be announced
                                                Rob Rostermundt

11:15 AM - Noon                    Towards the classification of ovoids in PG(3,q)
                                                William Cherowitzo (University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center)

Noon                                       Closing remarks from the guest of honor
                                                Stanley E. Payne (University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center)

Other Events
Because this conference is being held in conjunction with the AMS Central Sectional meeting, there are other talks that might also be of interest to StanleyFest participants. In particular, on Friday, March 16, 8:30 - 10:30 AM, there will be four contributed talks in the opening Special Session on Finite Geometry and Combinatorics:

Friday Morning, March 17,          AMS Finite Geometry and Combinatorics Session I
8:30 - 8:55 AM                           Determining p-colorability for knots
                                                   John Tynan (Marietta College)
 
9:00 - 9:25 AM                           A survey of the Cauchy-Davenport Theorem and the Erdos-Heilbronn Conjecture
                                                   Jeffrey Paul Wheeler (University of Memphis)

9:30 - 9:55 AM                          Regular excluded minors for the class of signed-graphic matroids
                                                  Daniel Slilaty (Wright State University)
 
10:00 - 10:25 AM                      A connection between topology, k-ellipses and the minimum weight triangulation problem
                                                  Cindy Traub (St. Mary's College of Maryland)

There will also be an AMS Invited Address on Cluster Algebras given by Sergey Fomin (University of Michigan) at 2:00 PM Saturday, March 17.
 
Logistics
The conference will be held on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  All of the talks will be in Room 112 of Bachelor Hall.  The StanleyFest Banquet will be in the Heritage Room of the Shriver Center (across the street from Bachelor Hall).  

The city of Oxford is located approximately 50 miles from the Cincinnati and Dayton airports.  Cincinnati is also served by Amtrak's Cardinal Line which provides rail service between Chicago and New York City.  There are a number of lodging options in the Oxford area.  Details can be found at http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/2128_other.html.

Registration
Participants should register on-site for the AMS Central Section Spring Meeting upon arrival Friday, March 16.  Registration fees are $40.00 for AMS members, $60.00 for non-members, and $5.00 for students.  There are no additional fees for StanleyFest 2007 other than the StanleyFest banquet. The cost for the banquet is $18.00.  To register for the banquet contact the organizer.  In order to make adequate preparations, we ask that banquet registrations be completed by March 1, 2007.

Organizer Contact Information
Mark Miller (millerr@marietta.edu)
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Marietta College
Marietta, Ohio 45750 USA
740-376-4811