Member Seminar Speaker: Lorenzo Riva, Harvard CMSA Title: A leisurely stroll through the theory of adjunctions Abstract: Adjoint functors (and, more generally, adjunctions in a 2-category) are ubiquitous in algebra and topology. In this talk I will give an overview of the basics of adjunctions, with the ultimate goal being understanding the statement of the […]
Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Saman Habibi Esfahani (CMSA) Title: Geometric structures on gauge theoretic moduli spaces Abstract: Motivated by Witten’s study of instantons on S3 x S1, we survey some classical and recent results, programs, and conjectures on geometric structures, such as symplectic and hyperkahler, on moduli spaces of instantons and monopoles on various […]
CMSA Q&A Seminar Speaker: Dan Freed, Harvard Topic: How does one navigate the job market as a postdoc in 2026?
Differential Geometry and Physics Seminar Speaker: Greg Moore, Rutgers University Title: Topics in the Relation of Four-Manifold Invariants and Supersymmetric Field Theory Abstract: We will begin with a review of topological twisting as a choice of background fields. We then review the standard paradigm for the formulation of Donaldson invariants as correlation functions in twisted supersymmetric […]
Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: William Stewart Title: Constructing oriented TQFTs from twisted pivotal tensor categories Abstract: The cobordism hypothesis classifies n-dimensional oriented TQFTs in terms of SO(n) homotopy fixed point data. An SO(2) homotopy fixed point structure on a finite tensor category gives rise to a twisted pivotal structure (a more general notion […]
Member Seminar Speaker: Blake Bordelon, CMSA Title: Theory of Task-Adapted Dynamics in Large Recurrent Neural Networks Abstract: Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) encode expressive and flexible dynamical systems which can adapt to perform tasks by modifying the internal connections between neurons. In this work we analyze the structure of the dynamical systems encoded in RNNs after […]
Mathematics and Biology I: Morphometry, Morphogenesis and Mathematics Dates: February 23–March 11, 2026 Location: Harvard CMSA, Room G10, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge MA Mathematics, Morphometry and Morphogenesis is a 3-week program at the Harvard CMSA, which will bring together researchers from a few different communities with a common aim—to understand shape and its development and evolution in […]
Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Owen Gwilliam, Umass Amherst Title: Abelian duality via derived geometry Abstract: We discuss how to synthesize differential cohomology and the BV formalism to describe generalized Maxwell theories (or abelian p-form gauge theories), and how this framework allows a succinct formulation of abelian duality. Given time, we will […]
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.
Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speakers: Max Hübner and Saman Habibi Esfahani
CMSA Q&A Seminar Details TBA
New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Courtney Paquette, McGill University Title: Scaling Stochastic Momentum from Theory to LLMs Abstract: Given the massive scale of modern ML models, we now often get only a single shot to train them effectively. This limits our ability to sweep architectures and hyperparameters, making it essential to understand how learning algorithms scale […]