Media

The Shaw Prize Lecture on Mathematical Sciences

08 Oct 2009

 

Shaw Laureates in Mathematical Sciences 2009 Professor Simon K Donaldson, Royal Society Research Professor of Pure Mathematics and President of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Imperial College, London; and Professor Clifford H Taubes, William Petschek Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, will give a lecture at the University of Hong Kong tomorrow (Oct 9).

The Shaw Prize on Mathematical Sciences 2009 was awarded jointly to the two professors for their brilliant contributions to geometry in 3 and 4 dimensions.

In his lecture "Old themes and new directions in mathematical aspects of Yang-Mills theory", Professor Donaldson will survey ideas which came into prominence with developments around the geometry of Yang-Mills fields and will go on to discuss the Yang-Mills equations in higher dimensions over manifolds of exceptional holonomy. Professor Taubes will seek to indicate in his lecture "Loops, surfaces and the structure of 3 and 4-dimensional spaces" how special loops and surfaces arise and what they tell people about 3 and 4-dimensional spaces.

Members of the press are cordially invited to the lecture. Details are as follows:
Date: October 9, 2009 (Friday)
Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Venue: Rayson Huang Theatre, The University of Hong Kong

About the Shaw Laureates:
Simon K Donaldson, born 1957 in Cambridge, UK, is currently the Royal Society Research Professor of Pure Mathematics and President of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Imperial College, London, UK. He received his BA from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1979 and his PhD from Oxford University in 1983. In 1986 he was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society.

Clifford H Taubes, born 1954 in Rochester, New York, USA, is currently the William Petschek Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He was an undergraduate at Cornell University and received his PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 1980. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

For details of the Shaw Laureates, please visit the Shaw Prize website at http://www.shawprize.org/en/shawprize2009/index.html, or call Miss Lee at 2241 5861 or 2859 2683.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Trinni Choy (Assistant Director (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2606 email: pychoy@hku.hk or Ms Melanie Wan (Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk