LONDONLONDON MATHEMATICALMATHEMATICAL SOCIETYSOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 430 November 2013 Society MeetingsSociety ONE THOUSAND to publicise LMS activities and Meetings AND COUNTING mathematics more generally, and Events and leave with a range of pub- and Events Three hundred people visited De lications including the Annual 2013 Morgan House on Sunday 22 Sep- Review and information about tember 2013 as part of the an- membership, grants and Women Friday 15 November nual London Open House event. in Mathematics. LMS Graduate Student Since first participating in Open The feedback from visitors Meeting, London House three years ago over 1,000 was again very positive. The LMS page 4 people have visited De Morgan will continue to develop its pres- Friday 15 November House, learning about the Society ence at the event and is already LMS AGM, London and mathematics more generally. discussing a more comprehen- page 5 sive programme for next year. 1 Monday 16 December SW & South Wales 2013 ELECTIONS Regional Meeting, TO COUNCIL AND Swansea page 13 NOMINATING 18-20 December COMMITTEE LMS Prospects in Members should now have re- Mathematics, Durham ceived a communication from the page 14 Electoral Reform Society (ERS) for both e-voting and paper ballot. 2014 For online voting, members may cast a vote by going to www.vote- Friday 28 February byinternet.com/LMS2013 and us- Mary Cartwright ing the two part security code on Lecture, York the email sent by the ERS and also Monday 31 March on their ballot paper. Northern Regional All members are asked to look Meeting, Durham out for communication from page 19 At this year’s event visitors the ERS. We hope that as many were given a short tour of se- members as possible will cast their lected rooms in the building vote. If you have not received bal- by LMS staff and Open House lot material, please contact dun volunteers. As well as discuss- [email protected], confirming NEWSLETTER ing the architectural features of the address (post or email) you ONLINE:NEWSLETTER De Morgan House and its place would like material sent to. newsletter.lms.ac.ukONLINE: in the history of Bloomsbury, With respect to the election it- newsletter.lms.ac.uk the event is an opportunity self, there are seven candidates LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 430 November 2013 proposed for five vacancies for Member-at- Committee. The slates and candidate biog- Large. One candidate has been nominated for raphies for the election can be found on the the new role of Member-at-Large (Librarian). LMS website at www.lms.ac.uk/about/council/ Four candidates have been proposed for two lms-election-2013. vacancies in the membership of Nominating For both electronic and postal voting the deadline for receipt of votes is 7 November 2013. Members may still cast a vote in person LMS Newsletter at the AGM. http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk Members may like to note that the LMS Election blog, moderated by the Scrutineers, Editorial office: London Mathematical Society, can be found at http://discussions.lms.ac.uk/ De Morgan House, 57–58 Russell Square, Lon- elections2013. don WC1B 4HS (t: 020 7637 3686; f: 020 7323 3655) Future Elections Articles: send articles to [email protected] Members are invited to make suggestions for Events calendar: updates and corrections to nominees for future election to Council. These [email protected] should be addressed to the Nominating Com- Advertising: for rates and guidelines see mittee ([email protected]). Members www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/ratecard.html may also make direct nominations: details will General Editor: Mr A.J.S. Mann be published in the April 2014 Newsletter or ([email protected]) are available from Duncan Turton at the LMS Reports Editor: Professor R.A. Wilson 2 ([email protected]). 3 ([email protected]) Reviews Editor: Professor D. Singerman ([email protected]) ANNUAL GENERAL Administrative Editor: S.M. Oakes MEETING ([email protected]) The Annual General Meeting of the Society Typeset by the LMS at De Morgan House; will be held at 3.00 pm on Friday 15 November printed by Holbrooks Printers Ltd. 2013 in the Jeffrey Hall at the Institute of Edu- Publication dates and deadlines: published cation, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL. monthly, except August. Items and advertise- The business shall be: ments by the first day of the month prior to 1. Elections to Council and Nominating publication, or the closest preceding working Committee day. Notices and advertisements are not ac- 2. Report of the President cepted for events that occur in the first week of 3. Report of the Treasurer: the publication month. a. adoption of the Trustees Report for News items and notices in the Newsletter may 2012/13 be freely used elsewhere unless otherwise b. appointment of Auditors stated, although attribution is requested when 4. Presentation of De Morgan medal and reproducing whole articles. Contributions to certificates to LMS Prize winners the Newsletter are made under a non-exclusive It is hoped that as many members as possi- licence; please contact the author or photog- ble will be able to attend. The Annual General rapher for the rights to reproduce. The LMS Meeting will be followed by a Society meet- cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of ing, with the Presidential address given by information in the Newsletter. Views expressed Graeme Segal and a lecture by Simon Donald- do not necessarily represent the views or policy son (see page 5). of the London Mathematical Society. Fiona Nixon Charity registration number: 252660. Executive Secretary LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 430 November 2013 LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY GRADUATE STUDENT MEETING ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Friday 15 November 2013 Friday 15 November 2013 Russell Room, CIPR, 52-53 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HP 3.00 – 6.00 pm (Nearest tube: Russell Square) Jeffrey Hall, Institute of Education This meeting is intended as an introduction to the Society Meeting later in the day. (20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL. Nearest tube: Russell Square) All graduate students (and indeed any other mathematicians) will be very welcome. Programme Annual General Meeting Preliminary Programme The meeting will include the presentation of certificates to the LMS 09.30 Coffee and Registration 10.00 Richard Thomas (Imperial College) Simon Donaldson (Imperial College) 11.00 Coffee/Tea Geometry of Kahler metrics 11.15 Graduate student talks Abstract: A Kahler metric is a particular kind of Riemannian metric, adapted to a complex structure 12.45 Lunch on a manifold. The title of the talk is meant to be bear to different interpretations. In one direction, 13.40 Award prizes the infinite dimensional space of all Kahler metrics on a given complex manifold has the structure of 13.45 David Evans (Cardiff) an infinite-dimensional symmetric space, related to the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms, and 4 14.45 Close of Meeting there are certain important convex functionals on this space. By arguments related to geometric 5 15.00 LMS Annual General Meeting and Society Meeting at the Institute of Education quantisation these spaces and functionals can be "approximated" by finite dimensional ones (in the case when the complex manifold is algebraic). In another direction, the Kahler condition allows Registration a more detailed undertanding of certain questions in Riemannian geometry involving Gromov- To register, please email Elizabeth Fisher ([email protected]) by email by 8 Novem- Hausdorff limits. In this lecture we will give an overview of this general area, and say something about recent work with Chen and Song, on an algebro-geometric criterion for the existence of ber. Places are free and all refreshments including lunch will be provided. Kahler-Einstein metrics, which involves many of the ideas. Student talks Tea/Coffee Students are invited to give short talks (15 minutes) aimed at a general mathematical audience. Prizes will be awarded for the best two talks. If you would like to give a talk, Announcement of Election Results please email Richard Thomas ([email protected]). Graeme Segal (Oxford) Travel Presidential Address: Space and spaces The lectures will be held in the Russell Room, CIPR, 52-53 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HP. For directions, see: http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/venue-and-room-hire/location. Abstract: The idea of space is central to the way we think. It is the technology we have evolved for interpreting our experience of the world. But space is presumably a human creation, and even in- side mathematics it plays a variety of different roles, some modelling our intuition very closely and Travel grants of up to £50 are available for students who attend both the Graduate Stu- some seeming almost magical. I shall point out how the homotopy category in particular breaks dent Meeting and the Annual General Meeting. away from its own roots. Then I shall describe how quantum theory leads us beyond the well-estab- lished notion of a topological space into the realm of noncommutative geometry. One might think LMS Annual General Meeting and Society Meeting that noncommutative spaces are not very space-like, and yet it is noncommutativity that makes the The LMS Annual General Meeting is a Society Meeting, which is open to all. Simon world look as it does to us - as a collection of point-particles. Donaldson (Imperial College) will give the first lecture on Geometry of Kahler Metrics and Graeme Segal (Oxford) will give the Presidential Address. The meeting will be held The meeting will be followed by a reception at De Morgan House, Russell Square, and the Society’s Annual Dinner at the Montague Hotel, 15 Montague Street, London, in the Jeffrey Hall at the Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1B 4HP.