What is...? seminar
Time: Usually on the last Friday of each month at 16:15. Talks are 30 minutes plus 15 minutes of questions.
Schedule 2019–20
- 27th Sept.: Riccardo Pengo, What is an L-function?
- 25th Oct.: Dasha Poliakova, What is the ring of symmetric functions?
- 12th Dec.: Calista Bernard, What is an operad?
- 10th Jan.: Jonas Peters, What is causality?
- 7th Feb.: Anssi Lahtinen, What is string topology of finite groups of Lie type?
- 28th Feb.: Nanna Aamand, What is a knot?
- 8th Apr.: Philipp Schmitt, What is non-commutative geometry?
- 24th Apr.: Felix Lubbe, What is mean curvature flow in higher codimension?
- 29th May: Benjamin Brück, What is a Coxeter group?
What is... the What is...? seminar?
After the What is...? seminar was successfully revived at the end of the last academic year, we will continue to have relaxed, informal talks with snacks and drinks. The seminar is aimed at PhD students and postdocs from all groups (ALG, GAMP, IE, MBIO, NCG, QMATH, SPT, TOP), but anyone is welcome to attend.
The social bit: We want to have an event where people from across the entire department can meet each other and socialise, so we hope that people will stay after the talk to chat, have a drink, and enjoy the sun (when it's around).
The maths bit: Inspired by a column in the Notices of the AMS with the same title, we want to have an accessible and non-technical seminar where speakers explain in one (short) lecture some object or theorem that they think is interesting. For inspiration, see the list of columns that have appeared in the Notices or the archived lists of past talks (below). The target audience is quite broad, so the talks shouldn't assume too much background.
Organisation
The current organisers of the What is....? seminar are Josh Hunt, Mikala Ørsnes Jansen, and Philipp Schmitt. If you would like to give a talk, or would be keen to hear a talk on a certain topic, then feel free to let one of them know!
Go to the archived schedule of the academic year 2014–15, the archived schedule of the academic year 2015–16, the archived schedule of the academic year 2016–17 or the archived schedule of the academic year 2018–19.