In the past few years, there has been significant progress related to several major open problems in additive combinatorics and number theory, such as quantitative aspects of Szemerédi's theorem and its multidimensional and polynomial variants, the Möbius randomness conjectures of Chowla and Sarnak, and sumset conjectures of Erdős. The methods draw from several areas of mathematics and are thematically tied by the interplay between "structure" and "randomness".
This week-long summer school will bring together graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to learn together about recent advances in additive combinatorics and number theory, highlighting their connections with dynamics, ergodic theory, and higher-order Fourier analysis.
The summer school will take place at the Bernoulli Center for Fundamental Studies at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland the week of July 14-18, 2025. The Bernoulli Center for Fundamental Studies is a world-renowned research institute facilitating research, outreach, and education in mathematics and the mathematical sciences.
The summer school is organized by researchers in the Chair of Ergodic Theory at EPFL:
Ethan Ackelsberg
Florian K. Richter
Konstantinos Tsinas
Mengdi Wang
The purpose of this summer school is to bring together early career researchers who are already working in or interested in starting research in additive combinatorics, number theory, and/or ergodic theory to learn together and potentially start new collaborations.
Each participant will prepare a 50 minute presentation on a recent, highly influential paper in the relevant areas of research. The list of topics is available here. Prospective participants can express their topic preferences during registration, with the final assignment of topics determined by the organizers.
We will also feature two keynote speakers with expertise in the research areas of the summer school:
Bryna Kra (Northwestern University)
Joni Teräväinen (University of Cambridge)
Part I: On Chowla's Conjecture
Part II: On Gowers Norms
Local expenses (housing and breakfast at the Hotel Continental in the center of Lausanne, daily lunches for the duration of the summer school, and local public transportation passes) will be covered for all participants. We ask that participants cover their own travel costs if they have funding available from their home institution. In exceptional cases, we will make an attempt to provide travel funds for participants without other funding sources.
Financial support for the summer school is provided by EPFL, with additional support from the Bernoulli Center for Fundamental Studies.
If you are interested in participating in the summer school, please complete the registration form here. Space is limited to 25 participants, and participation is not guaranteed upon completing the registration form. Preference will be given to graduate students and postdocs with research interests that align with the summer school topics.
Registration is now closed.
If you have any questions, please send an email to summerschoolepfl@gmail.com.