CMSA

9/17/2018 Math-Physics Seminar
2018-09-17 17:53 (America/New_York)

9/24/2018 Math-Physics Seminar
2018-09-24 17:55

9/24/2018 Topological Aspects of Condensed Matter Seminar
2018-09-24 17:56

GR Seminar 9/26/2018
2018-09-26 17:59

F-Theory Workshop
2018-09-29 08:30 - 2018-09-30 15:00 | CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
The CMSA hosted an F-Theory workshop September 29-30, 2018. The workshop was held in room G10 of the CMSA, located at 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA.
Youtube Playlist
Organizers:

Paolo Aluffi (Florida State)
Lara B. Anderson (Virginia Tech)
Mboyo Esole (Northeastern)
Shing-Tung Yau (Harvard)

Speakers:

Mirjam Cvetic, University of Pennsylvania
Tommaso de Fernex, University of Utah
James Gray, Virginia Tech
Jonathan Heckman, University of Pennsylvania
Monica Kang, Harvard University
Sándor Kovács, University of Washington
Anatoly Libgober, UIC
Matilde Marcolli, Caltech, University of Toronto, and Perimeter Institute
Washington Taylor, MIT
Cumrun Vafa, Harvard University

10/01/2018 Math-Physics Seminar
2018-10-01 18:01

10/03/2018 RMPT Seminar
2018-10-03 15:00 - 16:00

10/03/2018 GR Seminar
2018-10-03 18:03

10/08/2018 Math-Physics Seminar
2018-10-08 18:04

10/09/2018 Topological Aspects of Condensed Matter Seminar
2018-10-09 18:05

10/10/2018 RM & PT Seminar
2018-10-10 18:11

10/10/2018 General Relativity Seminar
2018-10-10 18:12

10/15/2018 Topology Seminar
2018-10-15 18:14

10/15/2018 Math Physics Seminar
2018-10-15 18:15

10/17/2018 General Relativity Seminar
2018-10-17 11:00

10/17/2018 RM & PT Seminar
2018-10-17 15:30

10/19/2018 Mirror Symmetry Seminar
2018-10-19 11:00 - 23:00

Workshop on Morphometrics, Morphogenesis and Mathematics
2018-10-22 08:30 - 2018-10-24 14:00 | CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
In Fall 2018, the CMSA will host a Program on Mathematical Biology, which aims to describe recent mathematical advances in using geometry and statistics in a biological context, while also considering a range of physical theories that can predict biological shape at scales ranging from macromolecular assemblies to whole organ systems.
The plethora of natural shapes that surround us at every scale is both bewildering and astounding – from the electron micrograph of a polyhedral virus, to the branching pattern of a gnarled tree to the convolutions in the brain. Even at the human scale, the shapes seen in a garden at the scale of a pollen grain, a seed, a sapling, a root, a flower or leaf are so numerous that “it is enough to drive the sanest man mad,” wrote Darwin. Can we classify these shapes and understand their origins quantitatively?
In biology, there is growing interest in and ability to quantify growth and form in the context of the size and shape of bacteria and other protists, to understand how polymeric assemblies grow and shrink (in the cytoskeleton), and how cells divide, change size and shape, and move to organize tissues, change their topology and geometry, and link multiple scales and connect biochemical to mechanical aspects of these problems, all in a self-regulated setting.
To understand these questions, we need to describe shape (biomathematics), predict shape (biophysics), and design shape (bioengineering).
For example, in mathematics there are some beautiful links to Nash’s embedding theorem, connections to quasi-conformal geometry, Ricci flows and geometric PDE, to Gromov’s h principle, to geometrical singularities and singular geometries, discrete and computational differential geometry, to stochastic geometry and shape characterization (a la Grenander, Mumford etc.). A nice question here is to use the large datasets (in 4D) and analyze them using ideas from statistical geometry (a la Taylor, Adler) to look for similarities and differences across species during development, and across evolution.
In physics, there are questions of generalizing classical theories to include activity, break the usual Galilean invariance, as well as isotropy, frame indifference, homogeneity, and create both agent (cell)-based and continuum theories for ordered, active machines, linking statistical to continuum mechanics, and understanding the instabilities and patterns that arise. Active generalizations of liquid crystals, polar materials, polymers etc. are only just beginning to be explored and there are some nice physical analogs of biological growth/form that are yet to be studied.
The CMSA will be hosting a Workshop on Morphometrics, Morphogenesis and Mathematics from October 22-24, 2018 at the Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, located at 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA.
The workshop is organized by L. Mahadevan (Harvard), O. Pourquie (Harvard), A. Srivastava (Florida).
Videos of the talks
Confirmed Speakers:

Arkhat Abzhanov, Imperial College
Siobhan Braybrook, UCLA
Cassandra Extavour, Harvard
Anjali Goswami, University College London
David Gu, Stony Brook
Jukka Jernvall, Helsinki
Eric Klassen, Florida State
Sayan Mukherjee, Duke
Peter Olver, U Minnesota
Nipam Patel, Berkeley
Stephanie Pierce, Harvard
Karen Sears, UCLA
Alain Trouve, ENS-Cachan, France
Laurent Younes, Johns Hopkins

Mathematical Biology
2018-10-22 09:00 - 2019-04-17 17:00 | CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
During Academic year 2018-19, the CMSA will be hosting a Program on Mathematical Biology.
Just over a century ago, the biologist, mathematician and philologist D’Arcy Thompson wrote “On growth and form”. The book was a visionary synthesis of the geometric biology of form at the time. It also served as a call for mathematical and physical approaches to understanding the evolution and development of shape.
In the century since its publication, we have seen a revolution in biology following the discovery of the genetic code, which has uncovered the molecular and cellular basis for life, combined with the ability to probe the chemical, structural, and dynamical nature of molecules, cells, tissues and organs across scales. In parallel, we have seen a blossoming of our understanding of spatiotemporal patterning in physical systems, and a gradual unveiling of the complexity of physical form. And in mathematics and computation, there has been a revolution in terms of posing and solving problems at the intersection of computational geometry, statistics and inference. So, how far are we from realizing a descriptive, predictive and controllable theory of biological shape?
In Fall 2018, CMSA will focus on a program that aims at recent mathematical advances in describing shape using geometry and statistics in a biological context, while also considering a range of physical theories that can predict biological shape at scales ranging from macromolecular assemblies to whole organ systems
The CMSA will be hosting three workshops as part of this program. The Workshop on Morphometrics, Morphogenesis and Mathematics will take place on October 22-26.
A workshop on Morphogenesis: Geometry and Physics will take place on December 3-6, 2018.
A workshop on Invariance and Geometry in Sensation, Action and Cognition will take place on April 15-17, 2019.

10/22/2018 Topology Seminar
2018-10-22 10:00 - 11:30

10/22/2018 Mathematical Physics Seminar
2018-10-22 18:24

2018 Ding Shum Lecture
2018-10-24 15:00 - 16:00 | Harvard Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138
On October 24, 2018, the CMSA hosted the second annual Ding Shum lecture. This event was made possible by the generous funding of Ding Lei and Harry Shum. Last year featured Leslie Valiant, who spoke on “learning as a Theory of Everything.”
This year will feature Eric Maskin, who will speak on “How to Improve Presidential Elections: the Mathematics of Voting.” This lecture will take place from 5:00-6:00pm in Science Center, Hall D.
Pictures of the event can be found here.

10/24/2018 RM & PT Seminar
2018-10-24 15:00 - 16:00

10/26/2018 Social Science Applications Forum
2018-10-26 18:20

10/29/2018 Topological Aspects of Condensed Matter Seminar
2018-10-29 10:30

10/29/2018 Math-Physics Seminar
2018-10-29 12:00 - 13:00

10/30/2018 RM & PT Seminar
2018-10-30 18:19

10/31/2018 General Relativity Seminar
2018-10-31 11:00

Exploring the (massive) space of graph partitions
2018-10-31 16:30 - 17:30 | CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Speaker: Moon Duchin (Tufts)
Title: Exploring the (massive) space of graph partitions
Abstract: The problem of electoral redistricting can be set up as a search of the space of partitions of a graph (representing the units of a state or other jurisdiction) subject to constraints (state and federal rules about the properties of districts). I’ll survey the problem and some approaches to studying it, with an emphasis on the deep mathematical questions it raises, from combinatorial enumeration to discrete differential geometry to dynamics.

11/5/2018 Math Physics Seminar
2018-11-05 12:00 - 13:00
