Category Archives: Event

Undergraduate Colloquium, Wednesday, May 7th

We will be having a colloquium this coming Wednesday at 5 pm in Fine 214. The speaker will be Prof. Gang Tian who specializes in geometric analysis. Check out his profile/wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_Tian
The title of the talk will be “Conic spherical metrics”. Here is the abstract:
 I will discuss the problem of constructing spherical structures on 2-sphere with prescribed conic angles and its connection to geometric stability. In the end, I will briefly discuss higher dimensional analogue of this problem.
Hope to see you there!

Undergraduate Colloquium, Monday, April 28

The next colloquium will be this coming Monday, 4/28, given by Prof. Yakov Sinai. It will be at 5pm in Fine 322. He will be talking about deterministic chaos and here is the abstract:

Deterministic chaos is a property of deterministic dynamics. I shall explain main properties of chaotic dynamics and give some example of chaotic dynamical systems.

Prof. Sinai is known for his work in dynamic systems. As many of you may have heard, he received the Abel Prize, which is often described as the mathematician’s Nobel Prize, not long ago. Check out his wikipedia page if you are interested!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Sinai

Undergraduate Colloquium, Wednesday April 9th

When: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, April 9th (coming Wednesday)
Where: Fine 214
Who: Prof. Adam Levine, who specializes in low-dimensional topology (and he only joined Princeton this academic year!) You can check out some details here:https://www.math.princeton.edu/news/home-page/mathematics-department-welcomes-new-faculty

What:
Title: Knot Concordance
Abstract: Concordance is the study of which knots in three-dimensional space can be realized as the boundaries of embedded disks in four dimensions, a question that was first introduced by Princeton’s Ralph Fox and John Milnor in the 1950s. This question is closely tied to many of the strange features of four-dimensional topology and is the subject of much current research. I’ll provide an overview of this subject and an introduction to some of the modern tools that have led to breakthroughs in our understanding.

Undergraduate Colloquium, Wednesday April 2nd

When: 5:45 pm – 6:45 pm, April 2nd (coming Wednesday)
Where: Fine 314
Who: Prof. Ken Ono, a professor from Emory University who specializes in number theory. You can check him out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ono
What: Title: Cool theorems proved by undergraduates

Abstract. I will explain some cool theorems in number theory that undergraduates
have proven in the last few years. This will include work on the distribution of
primes, number fields, and extensions if works by Euler-Jacobi-Nekrasov-Okounkov-Serre. Let me explain.

Come Dine with Professor Dunham

Come Meet Professor Dunham, visiting professor and author of Journey Through Genius, this Thursday at 6 in the Butler Private Dining Room!

 

Sign up for “Meet Your Professor Dinner” here: https://wass.princeton.edu/pages/viewcalendar.page.php?makeapp=1&cal_id=1720

William Dunham is visiting Princeton this semester and teaching a Freshman Seminar titled “The Great Theorems of Mathematics.”  He is a historian of mathematics who has spoken at scores of institutions — e.g., Harvard, Penn, Swarthmore — and written multiple books on the subject — e.g., Journey Through Genius(1990), Euler: The Master of Us All (1999), and The Calculus Gallery (2005).   Except for the weather, he’s very much enjoying his term at Princeton, where he’s addressed the Mathematics Colloquium and given the 2014 Pi Day talk to the Math Club.  And he’s thrilled to be part of this “Meet Your Professor” dinner.

Undergraduate Colloquium, Wednesday, 3/26

When: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm, March 26th
Where: Fine 214
Who: Prof. Klainerman, who specializes in PDE and analysis
What:  Title: Are black holes real
Blackholes are precise mathematical solutions of the Einstein field equations of General Relativity. Some of the most exciting astrophysical objects in the Universe have been identified as corresponding to these mathematical Black Holes, but since no signals can escape their extreme gravitational pull, can one be sure that the right identification has been made?
I will show how this crucial issue of reality of Black Holes can be addressed by nothing more than pen and paper, those perennial tools of the mathematician. I will discuss three fundamental mathematical problems concerning Black Holes, intimately connected to the issue of their reality: rigidity, stability and collapse.

Undergraduate Colloquium, Monday Mar 3rd

When: 4.30 pm – 5.30 pm, March 3 (coming Monday)
Where: Fine 322
Who: Prof. Robert Gunning, who has been teaching advanced 215/217 sequence for the past two years. His research focuses on analysis 
What: here are the title and abstracts
 
Topic: What is a Riemann surface

The graph of a curve is a familiar construction in the real plane; the analogous construction for complex valued functions of a complex variable is a “curve” that is a 2-dimensional set in a 4-dimensional space. Such curves, aside from a few singularities, locally look just like pieces of the complex plane, so it is possible to carry out complex analysis on such “curves”, just as for the complex plane; but the global geometry introduces a rich and fascinating structure on these sets, called Riemann surfaces (following the work of B. Riemann).

Spring Mentoring Möbius Meeting – Food, Fun, and Updates!

Hello, math clubbers!
Well, I should really say Mentoring Möbius participants.
I hope you’ve had a great fall semester! We’ll be having a general reorientation meeting for Mentoring Möbius next Thursday, February 27th at 8:00pm in the Fine common room. If you haven’t met with your group yet, please do so before this meeting. At the reorientation, we’ll announce a change regarding Mentoring Möbius.
 
This change involves money, so you know it’s important. You better come to the meeting then. If you can’t make it, please shoot me an email!
 
Food and drinks will be provided as usual—if you have any food requests at all, let me know via email. Remember, this food is for you. Here’s to a great year together!

Math Colloquium, Friday Feb. 21

We arranged with Prof. Conway a rescheduling of his colloquium! 
 
When: 4 pm – 5 pm, February 21 (coming Friday)
Where: Fine 224
Who: I don’t think I need to say more about Prof. Conway, but if you are interested in more details, please check wikipedia page here:
What: here are the title and abstracts
Two Subtle Theorems about Equilateral Triangles

In 1899 Frank Morley noticed that the points of intersection of the adjacent angle trisectors form an equilateral triangle. Since then, proofs of various levels of complexity have been given, and in this colloquium Professor Conway will present a surprisingly simple proof discovered by himself. In addition, Professor Conway will introduce a new theorem of himself on equilateral triangles and the subtle mathematics behind it.