Spring 2014 Fine Letters
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A MATHEMATICIAN's SURVIVAL GUIDE 1. an Algebra Teacher I
A MATHEMATICIAN’S SURVIVAL GUIDE PETER G. CASAZZA 1. An Algebra Teacher I could Understand Emmy award-winning journalist and bestselling author Cokie Roberts once said: As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school. 1.1. An Object of Pride. Mathematician’s relationship with the general public most closely resembles “bipolar” disorder - at the same time they admire us and hate us. Almost everyone has had at least one bad experience with mathematics during some part of their education. Get into any taxi and tell the driver you are a mathematician and the response is predictable. First, there is silence while the driver relives his greatest nightmare - taking algebra. Next, you will hear the immortal words: “I was never any good at mathematics.” My response is: “I was never any good at being a taxi driver so I went into mathematics.” You can learn a lot from taxi drivers if you just don’t tell them you are a mathematician. Why get started on the wrong foot? The mathematician David Mumford put it: “I am accustomed, as a professional mathematician, to living in a sort of vacuum, surrounded by people who declare with an odd sort of pride that they are mathematically illiterate.” 1.2. A Balancing Act. The other most common response we get from the public is: “I can’t even balance my checkbook.” This reflects the fact that the public thinks that mathematics is basically just adding numbers. They have no idea what we really do. Because of the textbooks they studied, they think that all needed mathematics has already been discovered. -
Report for the Academic Year 1995
Institute /or ADVANCED STUDY REPORT FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1994 - 95 PRINCETON NEW JERSEY Institute /or ADVANCED STUDY REPORT FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1 994 - 95 OLDEN LANE PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 08540-0631 609-734-8000 609-924-8399 (Fax) Extract from the letter addressed by the Founders to the Institute's Trustees, dated June 6, 1930. Newark, New jersey. It is fundamental in our purpose, and our express desire, that in the appointments to the staff and faculty, as well as in the admission of workers and students, no account shall be taken, directly or indirectly, of race, religion, or sex. We feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions as to personnel other than those designed to promote the objects for which this institution is established, and particularly with no regard whatever to accidents of race, creed, or sex. TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 5 • FOUNDERS, TRUSTEES AND OFFICERS OF THE BOARD AND OF THE CORPORATION 8 • ADMINISTRATION 11 REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN 15 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 23 • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 27 • REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF HISTORICAL STUDIES ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES MEMBERS, VISITORS AND RESEARCH STAFF 36 • REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES MEMBERS AND VISITORS 42 • REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES MEMBERS AND VISITORS 50 • REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES MEMBERS, VISITORS AND RESEARCH STAFF 55 • REPORT OF THE INSTITUTE LIBRARIES 57 • RECORD OF INSTITUTE EVENTS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1994-95 85 • INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY: BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Institute for Advanced Study is an independent, nonprofit institution devoted to the encouragement of learning and scholarship. -
MY UNFORGETTABLE EARLY YEARS at the INSTITUTE Enstitüde Unutulmaz Erken Yıllarım
MY UNFORGETTABLE EARLY YEARS AT THE INSTITUTE Enstitüde Unutulmaz Erken Yıllarım Dinakar Ramakrishnan `And what was it like,’ I asked him, `meeting Eliot?’ `When he looked at you,’ he said, `it was like standing on a quay, watching the prow of the Queen Mary come towards you, very slowly.’ – from `Stern’ by Seamus Heaney in memory of Ted Hughes, about the time he met T.S.Eliot It was a fortunate stroke of serendipity for me to have been at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, twice during the nineteen eighties, first as a Post-doctoral member in 1982-83, and later as a Sloan Fellow in the Fall of 1986. I had the privilege of getting to know Robert Langlands at that time, and, needless to say, he has had a larger than life influence on me. It wasn’t like two ships passing in the night, but more like a rowboat feeling the waves of an oncoming ship. Langlands and I did not have many conversations, but each time we did, he would make a Zen like remark which took me a long time, at times months (or even years), to comprehend. Once or twice it even looked like he was commenting not on the question I posed, but on a tangential one; however, after much reflection, it became apparent that what he had said had an interesting bearing on what I had been wondering about, and it always provided a new take, at least to me, on the matter. Most importantly, to a beginner in the field like I was then, he was generous to a fault, always willing, whenever asked, to explain the subtle aspects of his own work. -
Institut Des Hautes Ét Udes Scientifiques
InstItut des Hautes É t u d e s scIentIfIques A foundation in the public interest since 1981 2 | IHES IHES | 3 Contents A VISIONARY PROJECT, FOR EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE P. 5 Editorial P. 6 Founder P. 7 Permanent professors A MODERN-DAY THELEMA FOR A GLOBAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY P. 8 Research P. 9 Visitors P. 10 Events P. 11 International INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM, THE INSTITUTE’S TWO OPERATIONAL PILLARS P. 12 Finance P. 13 Governance P. 14 Members P. 15 Tax benefits The Marilyn and James Simons Conference Center The aim of the Foundation known as ‘Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques’ is to enable and encourage theoretical scientific research (…). [Its] activity consists mainly in providing the Institute’s professors and researchers, both permanent and invited, with the resources required to undertake disinterested IHES February 2016 Content: IHES Communication Department – Translation: Hélène Wilkinson – Design: blossom-creation.com research. Photo Credits: Valérie Touchant-Landais / IHES, Marie-Claude Vergne / IHES – Cover: unigma All rights reserved Extract from the statutes of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, 1958. 4 | IHES IHES | 5 A visionary project, for excellence in science Editorial Emmanuel Ullmo, Mathematician, IHES Director A single scientific program: curiosity. A single selection criterion: excellence. The Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques is an international mathematics and theoretical physics research center. Free of teaching duties and administrative tasks, its professors and visitors undertake research in complete independence and total freedom, at the highest international level. Ever since it was created, IHES has cultivated interdisciplinarity. The constant dialogue between mathematicians and theoretical physicists has led to particularly rich interactions. -
For Your Information
fyi.qxp 3/18/98 3:19 PM Page 244 For Your Information structure federal support. The study is part of a larger ef- International Study of fort at the Academy to gauge where the U.S. stands in- Mathematics and Science ternationally in scientific research. The motivation comes from a 1993 report by the Committee on Science, Engi- Achievement neering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP), which set forth strate- gies for making decisions about how best to use federal The first installment of results from the Third International research funds. COSEPUP is a committee of the NAS, the Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was released on No- National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Med- vember 20. This first batch of data pertains to achievement icine. The COSEPUP report recommended that the U.S. aim of eighth-graders; later releases will focus on fourth- and to be the world leader in certain critical fields and to be twelfth-graders. The study found that U.S. eighth-graders among the leaders in other areas. The report urged field- performed below the international average in mathemat- by-field assessments by independent panels of researchers ics but slightly above average in science. The U.S. was in the field, researchers in closely related fields, and users among thirty-three countries in which there was no sta- of the research. The mathematical sciences study is the first tistically significant difference between the performance such assessment. If this project is successful, the Academy of eighth-grade boys and girls in mathematics. The study will follow suit with other areas. -
Biographical Sketch of Jean Bourgain Born
Biographical Sketch of Jean Bourgain Born: February 28, 1954 in Ostende, Belgium Citizenship: Citizen of Belgium Education: 1977 - Ph.D., Free University of Brussels 1979 - Habilitation Degree, Free University of Brussels Appointments: Research Fellowship in Belgium NSF (NFWO), 1975-1981 Professor at Free University of Brussels, 1981-1985 J.L. Doob Professor of Mathematics, University of Illinois, 1985-2006 Professor a IHES (France), 1985-1995 Lady Davis Professor of Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988 Fairchild Distinguished Professor, Caltech, 1991 Professor IAS, 1994- IBM, Von Neumann Professor IAS, 2010– Honors: Alumni Prize, Belgium NSF, 1979 Empain Prize, Belgium NSF, 1983 Salem Prize, 1983 Damry-Deleeuw-Bourlart Prize (awarded by Belgian NSF), 1985 (quintesimal Belgian Science Prize) Langevin Prize (French Academy), 1985 E. Cartan Prize (French Academy), 1990 (quintesimal) Ostrowski Prize, Ostrowski Foundation (Basel-Switzerland), 1991 (biannual) Fields Medal, ICM Zurich, 1994 I.V. Vernadski Gold Medal, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2010 Shaw Prize, 2010 Crafoord Prize 2012, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Dr. H.C. Hebrew University, 1991 Dr. H.C. Universit´eMarne-la-Vallee (France), 1994 Dr. H.C. Free University of Brussels (Belgium), 1995 Associ´eEtranger de l’Academie des Sciences, 2000 Foreign Member of the Polish Academy, 2000 Foreign Member Academia Europaea, 2008 Foreign Member Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2009 Foreign Associate National Academy of Sciences, 2011 International Congress of Mathematics, Warsaw (1983), Berkeley (1986), Zurich (1994) - plenary International Congress on Mathematical Physics, Paris (1994), Rio (2006) - plenary 1 European Mathematical Congress, Paris (1992), Amsterdam (2008) - plenary Lecture Series: A. Zygmund Lectures, Univ. -
CURRICULUM VITAE David Gabai EDUCATION Ph.D. Mathematics
CURRICULUM VITAE David Gabai EDUCATION Ph.D. Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ June 1980 M.A. Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ June 1977 B.S. Mathematics, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA June 1976 Ph.D. Advisor William P. Thurston POSITIONS 1980-1981 NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University 1981-1983 Benjamin Pierce Assistant Professor, Harvard University 1983-1986 Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania 1986-1988 Associate Professor, California Institute of Technology 1988-2001 Professor of Mathematics, California Institute of Technology 2001- Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University 2012-2019 Chair, Department of Mathematics, Princeton University 2009- Hughes-Rogers Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University VISITING POSITIONS 1982-1983 Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 1984-1985 Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA 1985-1986 Member, IHES, France Fall 1989 Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ Spring 1993 Visiting Fellow, Mathematics Institute University of Warwick, Warwick England June 1994 Professor Invité, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse France 1996-1997 Research Professor, MSRI, Berkeley, CA August 1998 Member, Morningside Research Center, Beijing China Spring 2004 Visitor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ Spring 2007 Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 2015-2016 Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ Fall 2019 Visitor, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford Spring 2020 -
Sir Andrew J. Wiles
ISSN 0002-9920 (print) ISSN 1088-9477 (online) of the American Mathematical Society March 2017 Volume 64, Number 3 Women's History Month Ad Honorem Sir Andrew J. Wiles page 197 2018 Leroy P. Steele Prize: Call for Nominations page 195 Interview with New AMS President Kenneth A. Ribet page 229 New York Meeting page 291 Sir Andrew J. Wiles, 2016 Abel Laureate. “The definition of a good mathematical problem is the mathematics it generates rather Notices than the problem itself.” of the American Mathematical Society March 2017 FEATURES 197 239229 26239 Ad Honorem Sir Andrew J. Interview with New The Graduate Student Wiles AMS President Kenneth Section Interview with Abel Laureate Sir A. Ribet Interview with Ryan Haskett Andrew J. Wiles by Martin Raussen and by Alexander Diaz-Lopez Allyn Jackson Christian Skau WHAT IS...an Elliptic Curve? Andrew Wiles's Marvelous Proof by by Harris B. Daniels and Álvaro Henri Darmon Lozano-Robledo The Mathematical Works of Andrew Wiles by Christopher Skinner In this issue we honor Sir Andrew J. Wiles, prover of Fermat's Last Theorem, recipient of the 2016 Abel Prize, and star of the NOVA video The Proof. We've got the official interview, reprinted from the newsletter of our friends in the European Mathematical Society; "Andrew Wiles's Marvelous Proof" by Henri Darmon; and a collection of articles on "The Mathematical Works of Andrew Wiles" assembled by guest editor Christopher Skinner. We welcome the new AMS president, Ken Ribet (another star of The Proof). Marcelo Viana, Director of IMPA in Rio, describes "Math in Brazil" on the eve of the upcoming IMO and ICM. -
Robert P. Langlands Receives the Abel Prize
Robert P. Langlands receives the Abel Prize The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has decided to award the Abel Prize for 2018 to Robert P. Langlands of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA “for his visionary program connecting representation theory to number theory.” Robert P. Langlands has been awarded the Abel Prize project in modern mathematics has as wide a scope, has for his work dating back to January 1967. He was then produced so many deep results, and has so many people a 30-year-old associate professor at Princeton, working working on it. Its depth and breadth have grown and during the Christmas break. He wrote a 17-page letter the Langlands program is now frequently described as a to the great French mathematician André Weil, aged 60, grand unified theory of mathematics. outlining some of his new mathematical insights. The President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and “If you are willing to read it as pure speculation I would Letters, Ole M. Sejersted, announced the winner of the appreciate that,” he wrote. “If not – I am sure you have a 2018 Abel Prize at the Academy in Oslo today, 20 March. waste basket handy.” Biography Fortunately, the letter did not end up in a waste basket. His letter introduced a theory that created a completely Robert P. Langlands was born in New Westminster, new way of thinking about mathematics: it suggested British Columbia, in 1936. He graduated from the deep links between two areas, number theory and University of British Columbia with an undergraduate harmonic analysis, which had previously been considered degree in 1957 and an MSc in 1958, and from Yale as unrelated. -
“To Be a Good Mathematician, You Need Inner Voice” ”Огонёкъ” Met with Yakov Sinai, One of the World’S Most Renowned Mathematicians
“To be a good mathematician, you need inner voice” ”ОгонёкЪ” met with Yakov Sinai, one of the world’s most renowned mathematicians. As the new year begins, Russia intensifies the preparations for the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM 2022), the main mathematical event of the near future. 1966 was the last time we welcomed the crème de la crème of mathematics in Moscow. “Огонёк” met with Yakov Sinai, one of the world’s top mathematicians who spoke at ICM more than once, and found out what he thinks about order and chaos in the modern world.1 Committed to science. Yakov Sinai's close-up. One of the most eminent mathematicians of our time, Yakov Sinai has spent most of his life studying order and chaos, a research endeavor at the junction of probability theory, dynamical systems theory, and mathematical physics. Born into a family of Moscow scientists on September 21, 1935, Yakov Sinai graduated from the department of Mechanics and Mathematics (‘Mekhmat’) of Moscow State University in 1957. Andrey Kolmogorov’s most famous student, Sinai contributed to a wealth of mathematical discoveries that bear his and his teacher’s names, such as Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, Sinai’s billiards, Sinai’s random walk, and more. From 1998 to 2002, he chaired the Fields Committee which awards one of the world’s most prestigious medals every four years. Yakov Sinai is a winner of nearly all coveted mathematical distinctions: the Abel Prize (an equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematicians), the Kolmogorov Medal, the Moscow Mathematical Society Award, the Boltzmann Medal, the Dirac Medal, the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Jürgen Moser Prize, the Henri Poincaré Prize, and more. -
CURRICULUM VITAE November 2007 Hugo J
CURRICULUM VITAE November 2007 Hugo J. Woerdeman Professor and Department Head Office address: Home address: Department of Mathematics 362 Merion Road Drexel University Merion, PA 19066 Philadelphia, PA 19104 Phone: (610) 664-2344 Phone: (215) 895-2668 Fax: (215) 895-1582 E-mail: [email protected] Academic employment: 2005– Department of Mathematics, Drexel University Professor and Department Head (January 2005 – Present) 1989–2004 Department of Mathematics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. Margaret L. Hamilton Professor of Mathematics (August 2003 – December 2004) Professor (July 2001 – December 2004) Associate Professor (September 1995 – July 2001) Assistant Professor (August 1989 – August 1995; on leave: ’89/90) 2002-03 Department of Mathematics, K. U. Leuven, Belgium, Visiting Professor Post-doctorate: 1989– 1990 University of California San Diego, Advisor: J. W. Helton. Education: Ph. D. degree in mathematics from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 1989. Thesis: ”Matrix and Operator Extensions”. Advisor: M. A. Kaashoek. Co-advisor: I. Gohberg. Doctoraal (equivalent of M. Sc.), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1985. Thesis: ”Resultant Operators and the Bezout Equation for Analytic Matrix Functions”. Advisor: L. Lerer Current Research Interests: Modern Analysis: Operator Theory, Matrix Analysis, Optimization, Signal and Image Processing, Control Theory, Quantum Information. Editorship: Associate Editor of SIAM Journal of Matrix Analysis and Applications. Guest Editor for a Special Issue of Linear Algebra and -
Your Project Title
Curriculum vitae Alfonso Sorrentino Curriculum Vitae • Personal Information Full Name: Alfonso Sorrentino. Citizenship: Italian. Researcher unique identifier (ORCID): 0000-0002-5680-2999. Contact Information: Address: Dipartimento di Matematica, Universit`adegli Studi di Roma \Tor Vergata" Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome (Italy). Phone: (+39) 06 72594663 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/∼sorrenti • Research Interests Hamiltonian and Lagrangian systems: Aubry-Mather-Ma~n´etheory, KAM theory, weak KAM theory, Integrable systems, geodesic flows, Stability and Instability. Twist maps and symplectic maps: low-dimensional (topological) dynamics, Aubry-Mather theory. Billiards: dynamics, integrability, spectral properties, rigidity phenomena. Dissipative systems: conformally symplectic Aubry-Mather theory. Hamilton-Jacobi equation: Homogenization, Symplectic Homogenization, Hamilton-Jacobi on net- works and ramified spaces. Symplectic and contact geometry/topology: general theory, Hofer and Viterbo geometries, applica- tions to dynamics. • Education 2004 - 2008: Ph.D. in Mathematics, Princeton University (USA). Thesis Title: On the structure of action-minimizing sets for Lagrangian systems. Advisor: Prof. John N. Mather. Degree Committee: John N. Mather (President), Elon Lindenstrauss,Yakov Sinai and Bo0az Klartag. 2003 - 2004: M.A. in Mathematics, Princeton University (USA). Exam Committee: John Mather (President), Alice Chang and J´anosKoll´ar. 1998 - 2003: Laurea degree in Mathematics, Universit`adegli Studi \Roma Tre". Thesis Title: On smooth quasi-periodic solutions of Hamiltonian Systems. Supervisor: Prof. Luigi Chierchia. Evaluation: 110/110 cum laude. • Academic Positions 2014 - present: Associate Professor in Mathematical Analysis (01/A3, MAT/05) (tenured position) at Dipartimento di Matematica, Universit`adegli Studi di Roma \Tor Vergata", Rome (Italy). 2012 - 2014: Researcher in Mathematical Analysis MAT/05 (tenured position) at Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Universit`adegli Studi \Roma Tre", Rome (Italy).