During the 2025–26 academic year, the CMSA will be hosting a Colloquium series, organized by Tomer Ezra, Houcine Ben Dali, Francesco Mori, and Sunghyuk Park.
It will take place on Mondays from 4:30 – 5:30 pm (Eastern Time) in Room G10, CMSA, 20 Garden Street. All CMSA postdocs/members are required to attend the weekly CMSA Colloquium series as well as the weekly CMSA Members’ Seminars.
To subscribe to the CMSA Colloquium Mailing list, please visit this link.
The schedule will be updated as talks are confirmed.
Colloquium Speaker: Eran Nevo (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Title: Rigidity, expansion and polytopes Abstract: Given a graph G and an embedding of its vertices in R^d, what continuous motions of the vertices preserve all edge lengths? Clearly all motions induced by an isometry of R^d do, these are the trivial motions; are there any others? If the answer […]
Colloquium Speaker: Zhigang Yao (National University of Singapore) Title: Interaction of Statistics and Geometry: A New Landscape for Data Science Abstract: Classical statistics views data as real numbers or vectors in Euclidean space, but modern challenges increasingly involve data with intrinsic geometric structures. A central problem in this direction is manifold fitting, with origins in H. Whitney’s […]
Colloquium Speaker: Thomas Grimm, Utrecht University Title: Geometric Simplicity in Quantum Field Theory and Gravity Abstract: In physics we attribute much value to the emergence of simplicity, both conceptually and for computations. Familiar examples include algebraic relations among Feynman amplitudes, the surprising descriptions arising in large-N or duality limits, and the central role played by […]
Colloquium Speaker: Yue M. Lu, Harvard University Title: Asymptotic Theory of Attention: In-Context Learning and Sparse Token Detection Abstract: Attention-based architectures exhibit striking emergent abilities—from learning tasks directly from context to detecting rare, weak features in long sequences—yet a rigorous theory explaining these behaviors remains limited. In this talk, I will present two recent exactly solvable models that […]
Colloquium Speaker: Dor Minzer (MIT) Title: Recent Advances in Probabilistically Checkable Proofs Abstract: The PCP Theorem is a cornerstone of computer science, with applications to hardness of approximation, verification, interactive protocols and more. It asserts a witness for the satisfiability of a given 3CNF formula can be encoded in a robust way that allows local checking.In this […]
Colloquium Speaker: Julien Tailleur, MIT Title: The active Young-Dupré equation Abstract: The Young-Dupré equation is a cornerstone of the equilibrium theory of capillary and wetting phenomena. In the biological world, interfacial phenomena are ubiquitous, from the spreading of bacterial colonies to tissue growth and flocking of birds, but the description of such active systems escapes […]
Colloquium Speaker: Olivier Bernardi, Brandeis University Title: Bijections for hyperplane arrangements of Coxeter type Abstract: This talk is about real hyperplane arrangements whose hyperplanes are of the form {xi −xj = s} or {xi +xj = s}. We describe a bijective framework for a large family of such arrangements which we call transitive. For each transitive arrangement A, […]
Colloquium Speaker: Pankaj Metha, Boston University Title: Phase Transition to Chaos in Complex Ecosystems with Non-reciprocal Interactions Abstract: Nonreciprocal interactions between microscopic constituents can profoundly shape the large-scale properties of complex systems. In this pedagogical chalk talk, I will discuss recent work from our group on phase transitions and chaos in high-dimensional ecosystems with non-reciprocal […]
Colloquium Speaker: L. Mahadevan, Harvard Title: Inverse problems in soft and active matter Abstract: How can one grow a face or a flower from a flat sheet? Fold a sheet into an origami pattern? Control phase separation? Transport a drop of active matter? Steer an ant swarm? I will discuss potential answers to some of […]
Colloquium Speaker: Mikhail Khovanov, Johns Hopkins University Title: Facets of link homology Abstract: We will review some link homology theories of algebraic origin and their connections to representation theory and geometry.
Colloquium Speaker: Ofer Feinerman, Weizmann Institute of Science Title: Enacted collective cognition: Brainless problem-solving in weaver ants Abstract: Unlike most ants, weaver ants construct their nests by pulling together leaves. Because individual ants are small relative to the leaves, they assemble their bodies into temporary tools that bend the leaves into a hollow structure, later […]
Colloquium Speaker: Nikita Nekrasov, Simons Center Title: Dynamics as intersection problem Abstract: Most classical and quantum field theories are based on an action principle. However, there are important exceptions to this --- hydrodynamics and the theory of self-dual fields. In this talk we formulate the covariant relativistic fluid dynamics, with or without magnetic fields, as […]