We invite proposals for minicourses, special sessions and contributed talks on the Conference Themes.

A Special Session can have anywhere from 4 to 10 speakers (for a 1-day session) or may have 20 or more speakers if it runs over several days. A Minicourse is a more focused session consisting of a few speakers giving longer, tutorial talks on a focused topic.

To organize a Special Session or Minicourse, send to mtns2008@math.vt.edu a tentative title and a short description of the session together with a tentative list of speakers. More detailed instructions on the final formal submission process (uploading abstracts) will be posted on the "Author Information" page. A couple additional points of information:

1. Prospective participants are required to submit an extended abstract which will be sent out for review. Upon acceptance, authors are then invited (but not required) to submit a full paper for inclusion on the CD-ROM which will be distributed at the meeting. For more details on how to submit, see the Author Information page.

2. We will try to maintain a 30-minute time-slot for each speaker (including time for questions and discussions and for participants to change rooms to go to other sessions). With this amount of time allotted, speakers are encouraged to to include some background and motivation in their talks to make the talks accessible for a larger audience.