Minimal model program and foliations

A foliation on an algebraic variety is a partition of the variety into 'parallel' disjoint immersed complex submanifolds. Foliations naturally appears in a wide range of problems in algebraic geometry. I will explain recent progress in the birational classification of algebraic foliations in low dimension inspired by the theory of the Minimal Model Program. I will try to use key examples that exemplify the richness of the foliated world both in analogy and in opposition to the classical case of algebraic varieties. The talk will feature joint work with Calum Spicer.