About Talbot

The Talbot workshop is an annual mathematical retreat, bringing together a group of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with two faculty mentors. The participants engage in a week-long, intensive exploration of a single topic of contemporary research interest. 

The Talbot workshops have introduced aspiring mathematicians in a variety of disciplines (and from diverse institutions and backgrounds) to vibrant areas of research, fostering collaboration between fields and forging strong pedagogical and research ties between established mathematicians and young researchers. 

Each year, the mentors and organizers design a sequence of about twenty lectures, providing background, context, and future research directions in the topic. The mentors typically give two of the lectures, and participants give the rest. The lectures take place during the morning and evening, while the afternoons are left open to encourage discussion and group activities. Here is some advice about how to give a good Talbot talk.

A distinguishing feature of Talbot is that the living facilities contain the lecture space, leading to an informal but mathematically intensive atmosphere. There is ample time for casual discussion among the participants (this is one major motivation for combining the living space with the lecture space). Participants also cook, clean, and eat together – these activities also help to develop the communal atmosphere of the workshop.

Similar workshops include the European Talbot Workshop and the Kylerec Workshop.

The topic varies from year to year but tends to focus on current developments in mathematics at the interface of homotopy theory, topology, geometry, and physics. Each year, the organizers decide on a topic based on several factors, the most important of which is the availability of appropriate mentors to lead the workshop. 

Past Talbot Workshops covered topics such as Fukaya categories, the Geometric Langlands program, topological modular forms, model-independent theory of infinity categories, moduli spaces of manifolds, and topics in chromatic homotopy theory, among others.

Talbot is meant to encourage collaboration among young researchers, with an emphasis on graduate students. We also aim to gather participants with a diverse array of knowledge and interests, so applicants need not be an expert in the field – in particular, students at all levels of graduate education are encouraged to apply. 

The organizers try to assemble about 30 participants of varying backgrounds to encourage an atmosphere which is friendly to both expert and non-expert graduate students. In a typical year, only one to three mathematicians past their PhD attend Talbot (aside from the mentors). Due to space and funding constraints, it is not possible to accommodate everybody who is interested in attending. As such, we have potential participants fill out an application form. 

As we are committed to promoting diversity in mathematics, we especially encourage women and minorities to apply.

Every year we can give partial travel funding to participants. This has varied between $100 and $300 of support per participant, sometimes more. (A limited number of international participants may receive more funding for travel.) No participant has to pay for lodging or food, as both are provided by the workshop. 

The Talbot workshops have been supported by NSF grants DMS-2426392 (2024-2025), DMS-1953947 (2020-2023), DMS-1623977 (2017-2019) DMS-1406356 (2014-2016), DMS-1007096 (2011-2013), DMS-0805838 (2008-2010), and DMS-0512714 (2005-2007). Talbot 2024 was also supported by the K-theory Foundation.