2008 PME National Meeting at MAA MathFest,

Madison, Wisconsin, July 31-August 2, 2008

Conference highlights:

• MAA-PME Student Reception, Wednesday, July 30, 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

• PME Student Presentations, afternoons of Thursday, July 31 and Friday, August 1.

• The J. Sutherland Frame Lecture, Friday, August 1, 8:00 p.m. – 8:50 p.m. This year's lecture will be given by Professor John H. Conway of Princeton University, who will speak on

  "The Symmetries of Things."

  Abstract: "Thurston's Commandment," namely that "Thou shalt not understand the symmetries of a geometrical object save by studying its orbifold" was first used (in fact before Thurston) by Murray MacBeath to enumerate the distinct finite symmetry groups that are possible for objects in space of a most three dimensions (which had been enumerated in another way by Fedorov in the 19th century). The first part of the lecture will describe the resulting groups in terms of a notation I devised some time ago, that also applies to the celebrated 17 crystallographic plane groups. The second part will describe their 3-dimensional analogs, the 219 crystallographic space groups, which were re-enumerated recently by a new method due to Conway, Delgado-Friedrichs, Huson and Thurston. It's all easy, and there will be lots of pictures!