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HKU weekly notice (from Sept 14 to Sept 21, 2012)

14 Sep 2012

 

The Shaw Prize Lecture on Mathematical Sciences – “Mirror Symmetry” by Professor Maxim Kontsevich
Professor Maxim Kontsevich has been elected Shaw Laureate in Mathematical Sciences 2012. Professor Kontsevich is a Permanent Professor at l’Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques and holder of the AXA-IHES Chair for Mathematics.

Mirror symmetry was discovered in 1990-ies in string theory as certain duality between Calabi-Yau varieties, which are geometric objects producing fields and particles in the physical space-time, according to the string theory paradigm. Mirror Symmetry has made a very deep impact on many areas of mathematics, including homological algebra, algebraic geometry and symplectic topology. It is also related to nonarchimedean geometry and Riemannian geometry. Homological Mirror Symmetry conjecture proposed by Professor Kontsevich in 1994 (and now proven in many cases) re-interprets the physical duality in an abstract way, as an equivalence of categories, and it serves up to now as a major guiding principle. In a very wide sense, Mirror Symmetry can be seen as a duality between Algebra and Geometry, or between quantum and classical mechanics. The goal of the lecture is to explain in elementary terms several aspects of this rich subject.

Details of the lecture area as follows:

Date: September 19, 2012 (Wednesday)
Time: 3:30 pm to 5 pm (Registration from 3 pm)
Venue: Wang Gungwu Theatre, Graduate House, HKU

Registration is required. Please visit http://www.scifac.hku.hk/events/any/2012/shawprize2012 for seat reservation.  For enquiries, please call Miss Lee at 2241 5861 or 2859 2683.

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