Maths research workshop in Banff

I’m back

• For this week, I’ve been back in Banff working on some research with a group. In fact, there are about eight groups, spread out between Bristol and our location, working together. The way it works is that around 9am, we have a debrief on what we are working on, and our results, and we have a shared overleaf. I can’t speak for all eight groups, but that’s certainly how our group has been working and sharing our progress.
• This afternoon was our “free afternoon”, so people did hikes, went downtown, etc, and the three of us (i.e. Wissam, Victoria and myself) went to Lake Minnewanka and took a pretty pricey boat ride, which ended up being worth it, we saw a bald eagle, and even did a 30 minute hike afterwards, too.
• One of the things that has been interesting is that I noticed only two days into working that I was probably the only grad student in my group; most are either postdocs or faculty, which has definitely been a little intimidating, because everyone is bright and works quickly, but they have also been the loveliest group of people; so friendly, so helpful, and it’s been a joy.
• In the mornings, we have also had talks; today Kate Stange gave a talk on sphere-packing, and there was another one based on the general theme of our workshop.
• Something neat I learned is that Banff requires you to work for five years to be able to live there. Something as simple as that rule prevents (or at least disincentivizes) random people (who say, work remotely) from buying up all the land so that locals cannot live there).

Here are some photos from our free afternoon.

TODO

• I want to get up a bit early, because I’m tired, and continue to work on experiments, since we had a short day today. I also want to finish writing up some results for another research group I’m in that I have to check in with next week. But for now, rest.

And that’s it