Complexity Conference Wrap

In the second half of our podcast (22:34, 20.6 MB), Bill and I talk about the debate over special issues at the business meeting between Joachim van zur Gathen, editor-in-chief of Computational Complexity (a Springer journal that serves as the current home of the conference's special issue) and László Babai, editor-in-chief of Theory of Computing (an open-access electronic journal). Watch this space for the results of the vote taken after the debate.

Bill and I also talk about Richard Beigel's report on the not-too-bad state of theory funding. An important warning: Regular theory proposals will have a fall deadine, well before the deadlines over the previous few years.

Evan Golub set up a Flickr group for pictures from the conference and uploaded some he took from the business meeting. Feel free to upload your own pictures from the conference.

I really enjoyed the conference for several reasons. For the first time since 1995 I didn't attend the conference steering committee dinner or have any other major responsibilities. I did serve on the PC and hosted the first session, but pretty much I could just relax and enjoy this meeting. Also for the first time since Amherst in 2004 we had the conference by ourselves on an American college campus allowing a very relaxed atmosphere. I really had a chance to talk over some neat research problems and catch up with old friends including a very large presence of former Chicago students. No new theorems for me this week but plenty of neat problems to think about.

Now I go home, switch hats, and get ready for the upcoming Electronic Commerce Conference in Chicago.

See you all at next year's Complexity Conference in Paris!