Dates: Sep. 17, 2025 - April 15, 2026
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 pm ET
Location: Harvard Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA & via Zoom Webinar
Register for each lecture by following the page links below.
In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute identified seven significant open problems, and offered a $1 million bounty for each. Of these, only the Poincaré Conjecture has been resolved. The list was assembled to:
- Highlight major unsolved mathematical questions at the turn of the millennium
- Emphasize the importance of tackling genuinely hard problems
- Acknowledge significant achievements in mathematics
A final stated goal of these problems is to "elevate in the consciousness of the general public the fact that, in mathematics, the frontier is still open and abounds in important unsolved problems." It is in this spirit that we offer these seven public lectures.
September 17, 2025: Michael Freedman, Harvard CMSA: Poincaré Conjecture
October 15, 2025: Sourav Chatterjee, Stanford University: Yang-Mills Existence and Mass Gap
November 12, 2025: Pierre Deligne, Institute for Advanced Study: Hodge Conjecture
December 3, 2025: Madhu Sudan, Harvard University: P vs NP Problem
February 4, 2026: Barry Mazur, Harvard University: Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture
March 11, 2026: Javier Gómez-Serrano, Brown University: Navier-Stokes Existence or Breakdown
April 15, 2026: Peter Sarnak, Institute for Advanced Study: Riemann Hypothesis
Organizers:
Martin Bridson, Clay Mathematics Institute | Dan Freed, Harvard University and CMSA | Mike Hopkins, Harvard University
Organized in partnership with the Clay Mathematics Institute.