## PIMS Postdoctoral Training Centre in Stochastics (PTCS)

In 2015, PIMS was been pleased to receive renewed funding to the amount of $7.45 million from both NSERC and the Alberta Government. As part of this funding, PIMS launched the PIMS Postdoctoral Training Centre in Stochastics (PTCS). PIMS has world class groups in probability theory and its applications, and these groups have an excellent track record of postdoctoral supervision and placement. These groups will come together through the new PIMS PTCS to train an outstanding cadre of postdoctoral fellows. This program has attracted$550,000 in NSF funds for our University of Washington site, in addition to the support from the Province of Alberta. The PTCS organizes summer schools in probability and mathematical finance, develops networking between PIMS sites as well as with groups in Microsoft Research and Eastern Canada, and supports visits by distinguished visitors.

The program is currently directed by Omer Angel (since 2020) and was previously directed by Ed Perkins (2015-2017, 2018-2020) and Martin Barlow (2017-2018).

#### 2021 Pacific Workshop in Probability and Statistical Physics

Recent decades have seen an explosion of research in which probability theory is employed to tackle various important problems arising in statistical mechanics and mathematical physics. This has given rise to the development of diverse research areas which include spin systems, spin glasses, random polymers, heat kernel estimates and conformally invariant random fields to name a few. Each of these areas relies primarily on novel techniques developed in probability theory and harmoniously integrated with other areas of mathematics including algebra, complex analysis, geometry, combinatorics, ergodic theory and computer science. This workshop brings together top researchers in this field, from around the Pacific, with the overall goal of presenting a panoramic view of the most active research directions in current times. More details are available here.

#### 2020 PIMS-CRM Summer School in Probability

The Summer School has been rescheduled to May 30 to June 24, 2022 at UBC with the same lineup of long and short course speakers. In its place, this summer, the Open Online Probability School (OOPS) has a series of virtual one week courses scheduled from May 18 to at least July 31, 2020. This includes mini-courses by Ivan Corwin and Frank den Hollander, the main speakers for the PIMS-CRM Probability Summer School in 2022. A schedule and more information about the OOPS program may be found on the OOPS website. This is a joint event with the CRM, BIRS, SMS and MSRI.

#### PTCS Retreat 2019

The PTCS Retreat takes place annually and is an excellent opportunity for fellows, faculty and graduate students to interact and discuss probability in a relaxed atmosphere. In past years, it has been held at the BIRS facility in Banff and features prominent lectures as well as interactive discussions of open problems in the field. The PTCS gratefully acknowledges the support provided by BIRS for these events.

• The Fifth Annual PTCS Retreat was held at BIRS Sept. 27-29, 2019. It featured 10 lectures in a variety of pure and applied fields by Postdoctoral Fellows at PIMS sites. More information is available on the BIRS event webpage.

• The Fourth Annual PTCS Retreat was be held at BIRS Oct. 12-14/18. It featured lectures by 9 young researchers in stochastics at PIMS universities. More information is available on the BIRS event webpage.

• The Third Annual PTCS Retreat was held Oct. 20-22, 2017 at BIRS. More information is available on the BIRS event webpage (report).

• The Second PTCS Retreat was held Sept. 23-25, 2016 at BIRS. More information is available on the BIRS event webpage. Here are slides of some of the talks.
• Miki Racz: Statistical inference in non-Equilibrium networks (slides)
• Nicholas Beaton: Self-avoiding polygons in confined geometries (slides)
• Mathav Murugan: Elliptic Harnack Inequalities (slides)
• Simone Brugiapaglia: Sparse Approximation of PDEs based on Compressed Sensing (slides)

• The First Annual PTCS Retreat was held Sept. 18-20, 2015 at BIRS. The schedule of lectures may be found on the BIRS event webpage

#### Probability Day at UBC

Hosted at PIMS by UBC's Probability group, this one day seminar series will feature lectures provided by noted probabilists. The events will be shared by video-conferencing upon request. Please contact iana@pims.math.ca if you would like to take part remotely via BlueJeans.

A full schedule of events is available on the event webpage

#### Other PTCS Events

• The PNW Probability Seminar was hosted by Microsoft Research on Sat. Nov. 4, 2019 in Redmond, WA. Information about the meeting is available on the seminar web page.

## Current Postdoctoral Fellowships

The following postdoctoral fellows are supported by the PTCS program. PTCS Fellows are denoted by a (*).

#### University of Alberta

• Weiwei Qi (Chinese Academy of Scences) 2019-2021.
• Shirou Wang* (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Joint with CANSSI) 2019-2021

#### University of British Columbia

• Jacob Richey (University of Washington) 2020-2023
• Delphin Sénizergues (U. Paris 13) 2019-2022
• Yinon Spinka (Tel Aviv University) 2018-2022

#### University of Calgary

• Wenning Wei (Fudan University) 2017-