The primary focus of this program will be on the theme of universality in the following three different classes of discrete random structures. All three are active areas of ongoing research.(1) Randomly growing interfaces and (1+1) dimensional polymer models: A large class of models in this area are believed to exhibit the so-called KPZ universality. Despite intense activity in the last decade, which saw immense progress in the study of exactly solvable models, the understanding of universality beyond integrable models remains rather limited. (2) Eigenvalues of random matrices and other point processes: Random matrix theory is an area where universality has been shown in non-integrable settings. This owes to fundamental progress in techniques in the last 10 years. Relationships between different aspects of random matrix theory and other branches of probability, or even mathematics at large, continue to be actively explored and developed.(3) Sandpile models and other Laplacian growth mo...
