The Ahlfors-Bers Colloquia commemorate the mathematical legacy of Lars Ahlfors and Lipman Bers. The core of this legacy lies in the fields of geometric function theory, Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, and partial differential equations. Today we see the influence of Ahlfors and Bers on algebraic geometry, mathematical physics, dynamics, probability, geometric group theory, number theory and topology. Recent years have seen a flowering of this legacy with an increased interest in their work. This current volume contains articles on a wide variety of subjects that are central to this legacy. These include papers in Kleinian groups, classical Riemann surface theory, Teichmuller theory, mapping class groups, geometric group theory, and statistical mechanics.

The subject of Kleinian groups and hyperbolic 3-manifolds is currently undergoing explosively fast development, the last few years having seen the resolution of many longstanding conjectures. This volume contains important expositions and original work by some of the main contributors on topics such as topology and geometry of 3-manifolds, curve complexes, classical Ahlfors-Bers theory, computer explorations and projective structures. Researchers in these and related areas will find much of interest here from the explosion in the area over recent years, including important and original research from leading names in the field.