This is a weekly series of lectures by distinguished visitors and Penn State research faculty. These lectures are instrumental in focusing the interest of MASS participants on various research areas both during their participation in the program and in their future selection of graduate programs.

2010

• Hard disks in a box: topology and complexity
  Yu. Baryshnikov, Bell Labs
• Symmetry, regular solids and quantum field theory
  Adrian Ocneanu, Penn State
• The rental harmony theorem
  David Futer, Temple University
• Tilings with rational polygons
  Richard Kenyon, Brown University
• Amenability of the Thompson group $F$ and some elementary properties of $Z^n$
  Marl Sapir, Vanderbilt University
• Behind the Hofstadter's butterfly: the competition between order and chaos
  Svetllana Jitomirskaya, University of California Irvine
• Symmetry: From Triangles to Quantum Physics
  Kenneth Gross, University of Vermont
• Some reflections on mirrors
  Ron Perline, Drexel University
• Outer Billiards, Polytope Exchange Maps, and Renormalization
  Richard Schwartz, Brown University
• Capillary surfaces
  Robert Finn, Stanford Univrsity
• Alexandrov's theorem on development of polyhedron
  A. Petrunin, Penn State

2009

• Tropical geometry
  Ilia Itenberg, University of Strasbourg and MSRI
• Using elliptic and hyperelliptic curves in pairing-based cryptography
  Kirsten Eisentraeger, Penn State
• An Invitation to Minimal Surfaces
  Matthias Weber, Indiana University
• Discovering and proving theorems by physical reasoning
  Mark Levi, Penn State
• Minimal surfaces in sub-Riemannian geometry
  Luca Capogna, University of Arkansas
• [0,1] is not a minimality detector of [0,1]^2
  Jon Chaika, N/A
• Everything you wanted to know about 2x2 matrices
  Svetlana Katok, Penn State
• Topological Network Topology
  Robert Ghrist, University of Pennsylvania
• Topology and Social Choice
  S. Weinberger, University of Chocago
• Two problems in combinatorial plane geometry
  Anton Petrunin, Penn State
• Braid groups and their applications
  Frederick Cohen, University of Rochester

2008

• Theory of Dynamical Systems on service to Number Theory
  A. Gogolev, Penn State
• The four vertex property and topology of surfaces with constant curvature
  M. Ghomi, Georgia Tech
• Higher dimensional solutions to low dimensional problems
  K. Stolarsky, University of Illinois
• The Devil's Pentagram
  R. Schwartz, Brown University
• Fundamental solutions of differential operators and D-module theory
  F. Malikov, University of Southern California
• Introduction to Hypergeometric Functions
  V. Retakh, Rutgers University
• DNA Topology
  De Witt Sumners, Florida State University
• The discrete square peg problem
  I. Pak, University of Minnesota
• Cantor and Sierpinski, Julia and Fatou: Crazy Topology in Complex Dynamics
  R. Devaney, Boston University
• How to Tie Your Unicycle in Knots: An Introduction to Legendrian Knot Theory
  Josh Sabloff, Haverford College

2007

• Toy modeling
  Tadashi Tokieda, University of Cambridge, N/A
• Analysis, Geometry and Arithmetics of fractals
  Alexadre Kirillov, University of Pennsylvania, N/A
• Playing zero-sum games and convex geometry after John Nash
  Dmitry Burago, Penn State, N/A
• Geometry of Polyhedra
  Igor Rivin, Temple University, N/A
• Physical proofs of mathematical theorems
  Mark Levi, Penn State, N/A
• What does the future hold for restricted patterns?
  Zvezdelina Stankova, Mills College, N/A
• From the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra to astrophysics: a "harmonious" journey
  Dmitry Khavinson, University of South Florida, N/A
• Can understanding cancer be translated into effective anticancer therapy?
  Andrei Gudkov, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, N/A
• Hilbert's Tenth over Subrings of Q
  Alexandra Shlapentokh, East Carolina University, N/A
• A Glimpse of Several Complex Variables
  Steven Krantz, American Institute of Mathematics, N/A
• Inverse problems in Arithmetic Combinatorics
  Alexander Razborov, Institute for Advanced Study, N/A

2006

• "Uniform Distribution: from Diophantine approximations to ergodic theorems"
  Vitaly Bergelson, Ohio State University
• "Virtual links and ribbon graphs"
  Sergei Chmutov, Ohio State University
• "Packing discs in the plane"
  Ronald Graham, University of California, San Diego
• Noncrossing partitions, meanders, and the fundamental theorem of algebra
  David Savitt, University of Arizona
• Direct methods in the calculus of variations
  Paul Rabinowitz, University of Wisconsin
• Classification of Legendrian Knots and Links
  Lisa Traynor, Bryn Mawr College
• Bending polyhedra
  Yuri Burago, Steklov Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia)
• The Integral Octonions (That Funny Number System)
  Derek Smith, Lafayette College
• Topology of algebraic curves and surfaces (Hilbert's 16th problem and beyond)
  Nikita Netsvetaev, St. Petersburg University (St. Petersburg, Russia)

2005

• "Gravity-defying phenomena"
  Mark Levi, Penn State University
• "How old was Diophantus's son?"
  Don Zagier, MPI-Bonn & College de France
• "Bugs, Blobs and Roto-Routers"
  James Propp, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• "Schwarzian derivative, projectivity and some applications to rigidity"
  Chengbo Yue, Academy of Mathematical and System Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• "Mathematics of symmetry in 4 dimensions - a sculpture"
  Adrian Ocneanu, Penn State University
• "New Solutions to the N-body problem"
  Richard Montgomery, University of California, Santa Cruz
• "How many prime factors does a number have?"
  Krishnaswami Alladi, University of Florida
• "Venn Diagrams and Symmetric Chain Decompositions"
  Carla Savage, North Carolina State University
• "Knots, Tangles, DNA and Quantum Physics"
  Louis Kauffman, University of Illinois at Chicago
• "Different facets of linking numbers"
  Boris Khesin, University of Toronto

2004

• "Riemann Mapping Theorem via steepest descent"
  Mark Levi, Penn State University
• "Volume and area formulas"
  Robert Connelly, Cornell University
• "The dynamics of thin flexible things: shaking and breaking"
  Andrew Belmonte, Pennsylvania State University
• "Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a 1-D process with variable length"
  Andre Toom, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil
• "What does the limit shape mean in geometry and combinatorics?"
  Anatoly Vershik, St. Petersburg State University and Steklov Institute
• "How many roots does a matrix polynomial equation have?"
  Vladimir Retakh, Rutgers University
• "The dynamics and geometry of microscopic structures in piecewise rotations"
  Aroek Goetz, San Francisco State University
• "Experiments with triangular billiards"
  Richard Schwartz, University of Maryland
• "Polynomials and Knots"
  Walter Neumann, Columbia University
• "On the filtering problem of stationary processes"
  Mariusz Lemanczyk, Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

2003

• "Is it possible to cut a tetrahedron into pieces and to assemble a cube? (Hilbert's 3rd Problem)"
  by Dmitry Fuchs, University of California at Davis
• "The Geometry of Spiral Circle Packings"
  by Kenneth Stephenson, University of Tennessee
• "Double bubbles"
  by Frank Morgan, Williams College
• "The SIAM 100 Digit Challenge: Adventures in Numerical Computing"
  by Stanley Wagon, Macalester College
• "Braids, graphs, and robots"
  by Aaron Abrams, University of Georgia
• "Irrationality measures using integration by parts"
  by Krishna Alladi, University of Florida
• "Pascal Triangles in Modular Arithmetic, Entropy and Algebraic Functions"
  by Hillel Furstenberg, Yale University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• "Fermionic Integration"
  by A. Vaintrob, University of Oregon

2002

• "Laurent phenomenon"
  by Andrei Zelevinsky, Northeastern University
• "Topological problems in combinatorics"
  by Robin Forman, Rice University
• "On projective duality"
  by Serge Lvovski, Independent University of Moscow
• "Asymptotic lines and the Griffiths-Harris rigidity of compact Hermitian symmetric spaces"
  by Joseph Landsberg, Georgia Institute of Technology
• "The exponential in mathematics and physics"
  by Adrian Ocneanu, Penn State University
• "Impossible Crystals"
  by Roger Penrose, Oxford University and Penn State University
• "Some connections between combinatorics, group theory, topology and computer science"
  by Mark Sapir, Vanderbilt University
• "The Nash Equilibrium"
  by Mikhail Shubin, Northeastern University
• "Iterated exponentials"
  by J. Anderson, Penn State University
• "Enumerative geometry"
  by Mira Bernstein, Wellesley

2001

• "Family Algebras."
  by Alexandre Kirillov, University of Pennsylvania.
• "Integral Lexicographic Codes"
  by John Conway, Princeton University
• "Klein's Erlanger Programme"
  by Augustin Banyaga, Penn State University
• "Virasoro group and projective structures on the circle: a hidden face of an old coin"
  by V. Ovsienko, CNRS, Centre of Theoretical Physics, Luminy, France
• "Vector Calculus and the Topology of Domains in 3-space"
  by Herman Gluck, University of Pennsylvania
• "Minimal surfaces, discrete harmonic analysis, and random walks"
  by Alexei Sossinsky, Independent University of Moscow
• "Physical proofs of mathematical theorems"
  by Mark Levi, Penn State University
• "One hundred years of Hilbert's fourth problem"
  by Juan Carlos Alvarez, New York Polytechnic University
• "Loops in R³: New Angles on an Old Topic"
  by Bruce Solomon, Indiana University

2000

• "Knotted Flowlines"
  by Robert Ghrist, Georgia Tech
• "EULER, JACOBI, RAMANUJAN: Interesting Formulae, Beautiful Results and Some Recent Variations."
  by Irwin Kra, State University of New York at Stony Brook
• "Aperiodic Tilings and Computation in the Hyperbolic Plane."
  by Chaim Goodman-Strauss, Princeton University
• "Search Engines and Measurements on the Modular Group."
  by Leonid Polterovich, Tel Aviv University
• "Internet Search and Markov Chains."
  by Michael Brin, University of Maryland
• "The Peano Kernel: Convolving Abstract and Applied Mathematics."
  by Michael Gage, University of Rochester
• "Flexible Polyhedra"
  by Dmitry Fuchs, University of California at Davis
• "The Story of the Rogers-Ramanujan Identitites"
  by G. Andrews, Penn State University
• "The Future of Mathematics"
  by Doron Zeilberger, Temple University

1999

• "The Meaning of Chaos"
  by Greg Swiatek, Penn State
• "When Do Polynomials Have Common Zeros?"
  by Dale Brownawell, Penn State
• "Knots and Knot Invariants"
  by Arkady Vaintrob, University of New Mexico
• "Hilbert's 16th Problem Near Its Centenary"
  by Yulij Ilyashenko, Cornell
• "Replicating Tiles"
  by Viorel Nitica, Notre Dame
• "Nightmares and Dreams of Lyapunov: Stability and Semigroups"
  by Yuri Latushkin, University of Missouri
• "On the Hilbert-Smith Conjecture"
  by Alexander Dranishnikov, Penn State
• "The DNA Geometric Inequality: An Open-ended Story"
  by Serge Tabachnikov, University of Arkansas
• "The Banach-Tarski Paradox and Amenable Groups"
  by Misha Guysinsky, Tufts University
• "Group Reconstruction"
  by Conrad Plaut, University of Tennessee

1998

• "Rational numbers, right triangles, and elliptic curves"
  by Karl Rubin, Stanford University
• "Bicycle wheels, Gauss-Bonnet formula and Berry's phase"
  by Mark Levi, Penn State University
• "Why representation theory is interesting and useful?"
  by Alexandre Kirillov, University of Pennsylvania
• "Playing pool with pi"
  by Gregory Galperin, Eastern Illinois University
• "The Life and Work of India's Greatest Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan"
  by Bruce Berndt, University of Illinois
• "Mathematics of Fractal Images"
  by Yakov Pesin, Penn State University
• "An Introduction to K-theory"
  by Paul Baum, Penn State University
• "Arithmetic Curves and Triangulations"
  by Fedor Bogomolov, Courant Institute
• "Social Life of Curves"
  by Simon Gindikin, Rutgers University

1997

Professor Kirillov delivers his colloquia talk, Why the symplectic and contact geometry are so important?, MASS-97

• "Connecting the dots: the theory and practice of interpolation"
  by Douglas Arnold, Penn State
  (This lecture was accompanied by extensive computer demonstrations.
  The computer related materials for this lecture are available at
  http://www.math.psu.edu/dna/interpolation/interpolation.html.)
• "Why the symplectic and contact geometries are so important?"
  by Alexandre Kirillov, University of Pennsylvania
• "Mountaineering and quantum mechanics"
  by John Roe, Jesus College, Oxford UK
• "Platonic solids, their symmetry groups and Klein's invariant theory"
  by Adrian Ocneanu, Penn State
• "Probabilistic strategies in games"
  by Sergei Ivanov, Steklov Institute for Mathematics, Russia
• "Invariants of curves by evolution of frames"
  by Richard L. Bishop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1996

• "The man who loved numbers, Biography of Ramanujan"
  by George Andrews, Penn State
• "Stability of the inverted pendulum and topology of the symplectic group"
  by Mark Levi, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  (This lecture featured a number of beautiful mechanical experiments and their theoretical explanations.)
• "On classification of the finite simple groups"
  by Edward Formanek, Penn State.
• "Dynamics of the logistic family"
  by Greg Swiatek, Penn State
• "Playing billiard with a help of mathematics"
  by Yuri M. Suhov, University of Cambridge, UK.
• "Unprovable theorems and fast-growing functions"
  by Stephen Simpson, Penn State

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This page was last revised on August 22, 2013.

Questions or comments? E-mail mass@math.psu.edu.