Schlessinger and Stasheff have discovered in the 80's $L_\infty$-algebras. These algebras nowadays play an important rôle in many different areas, in particular via deformation theory. A very efficient tool to build such algebras is the derived bracket construction of T. Voronov. In this talk we will give a geometric interpretation of this construction
Links:
[1] http://www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/taxonomy/term/39
[2] http://www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/node/3444
[3] http://www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/node/7958