Special Colloquium
Shing-Tung Yau
Harvard
Geometry of Space, Physics and Analysis
Abstract: The concept of space has gone through many stages of evolutions. Many of them are related to the advancement of our understanding of the nature: from Euclidean geometry to analytic geometry and calculus; from intrinsic Gauss curvature to Riemannian geometry and to Einstein's general relativity; from conformal geometry to complex manifolds and to string theory; from fiber bundles to gauge theory and to quantum field
theory... These developments display a beautiful blend of geometry, analysis and physics, with the goal of unifying all the forces in nature.
Shing-Tung Yau, one of the most celebrated and influential mathematicians of our times, is the Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard. He received a Ph.D from University of California, Berkeley at the age of 22. He was awarded the Fields Medal, the Crafoord Prize, the Wolf Prize and the National Medal of Science. He is the founder and leading figure of geometric analysis and solved the Calabi conjecture in algebraic geometry and positive mass conjecture in general relativity which have had a profound influence on a wide range of scientific disciplines.
There will be a reception after the talk.
Wednesday March 11, 2015 at 4:00 PM in BSB 250