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Beginning in Spring 2020, the CMSA began hosting a lecture series on literature in the mathematical sciences, with a focus on significant developments in mathematics that have influenced the discipline, and the lifetime accomplishments of significant scholars.

Written articles accompany lectures in this series and will be available as part of the publication The Literature and History of Mathematical Science.

Volume 1: Literature and History of Mathematical Science is now in print and available.

  • Lecture_Donaldson-pdf

    CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: The ADHM construction of Yang-Mills instantons

    Virtual

    Simon Donaldson (Stony Brook) Title: The ADHM construction of Yang-Mills instantons Abstract: In 1978 (Physics Letters 65A) Atiyah, Hitchin, Drinfeld and Manin (ADHM) described a construction of the general solution of the Yang-Mills instanton equations over the 4-sphere using linear algebra. This was a major landmark in the modern interaction between geometry and physics,  and the […]

  • Lecture_Harris_updated-pdf

    CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Rationality questions in algebraic geometry

    Virtual

    Joe Harris (Harvard) Title: Rationality questions in algebraic geometry Abstract: Over the course of the history of algebraic geometry, rationality questions — motivated by both geometric and arithmetic problems — have often driven the subject forward. The rationality or irrationality of cubic hypersurfaces in particular have led to the development of abelian integrals (dimension one), birational geometry (dimension […]

  • Lecture_Etingof-pdf

    CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Quantum Groups

    Virtual

    Pavel Etingof (MIT) Title: Quantum Groups Abstract: The theory of quantum groups developed in mid 1980s from attempts to construct and understand solutions of the quantum Yang-Baxter equation, an important equation arising in quantum field theory and statistical mechanics. Since then, it has grown into a vast subject with profound connections to many areas of mathematics, such as […]

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    CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Black Hole Formation

    Virtual

    Lydia Bieri (University of Michigan) Title: Black Hole Formation Abstract: Can black holes form through the focusing of gravitational waves? This was an outstanding question since the early days of general relativity. In his breakthrough result of 2008, Demetrios Chrstodoulou answered this question with “Yes!” In order to investigate this result, we will delve deeper into the […]

  • CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: My life and times with the sporadic simple groups

    Virtual

    Robert Griess (University of Michigan) Title: My life and times with the sporadic simple groups Abstract: Five sporadic simple groups were proposed in 19th century and 21 additional ones arose during the period 1965-1975. There were many discussions about the nature of finite simple groups and how sporadic groups are placed in mathematics. While in mathematics grad […]

  • Lecture_Lian-pdf

    CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: From string theory and Moonshine to vertex algebras

    Virtual

    Bong Lian (Brandeis) Title: From string theory and Moonshine to vertex algebras Abstract: This is a brief survey of the early historical development of vertex algebras, beginning in the seventies from Physics and Representation Theory. We shall also discuss some of the ideas that led to various early formulations of the theory’s foundation, and their relationships, as […]

  • Lecture_Manolescu-pdf

    CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Four-dimensional topology

    Virtual

    Ciprian Manolescu (Stanford) Title: Four-dimensional topology Abstract: I will outline the history of four-dimensional topology. Some major events were the work of Donaldson and Freedman from 1982, and the introduction of the Seiberg-Witten equations in 1994. I will discuss these, and then move on to what has been done in the last 20 years, when the […]

  • CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Hodge structures and the topology of algebraic varieties

    Virtual

    Claire Voisin (Collège de France) Title: Hodge structures and the topology of algebraic varieties Abstract: We review the major progress made since the 50’s in our understanding of the topology of complex algebraic varieties. Most of the results  we will discuss  rely on Hodge theory, which  has some analytic aspects giving the Hodge and Lefschetz decompositions, and […]

  • CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Area-minimizing integral currents and their regularity

    Virtual

    Camillo De Lellis (IAS) Title: Area-minimizing integral currents and their regularity Abstract: Caccioppoli sets and integral currents (their generalization in higher codimension) were introduced in the late fifties and early sixties to give a general geometric approach to the existence of area-minimizing oriented surfaces spanning a given contour. These concepts started a whole new subject which has […]

  • CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: From Deep Learning to Deep Understanding

    Virtual

    Harry Shum (Tsinghua University) Title: From Deep Learning to Deep Understanding Abstract: In this talk I will discuss a couple of research directions for robust AI beyond deep neural networks. The first is the need to understand what we are learning, by shifting the focus from targeting effects to understanding causes. The second is the need for a […]