Mini-Symposium on Topology at Institute for Advanced Study to Feature Faculty and Members

On Friday, May 1, the Institute for Advanced Study will host an interdisciplinary mini-symposium, “Is the Abstract Mathematics of Topology Applicable to the Real World?,” which will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus. This event will feature presentations by Faculty and former Members and will be moderated by Robbert Dijkgraaf, Institute Director and Leon Levy Professor.

Topology is the only major branch of modern mathematics that wasn't anticipated by the ancient mathematicians. Throughout most of its history, topology has been regarded as strictly abstract mathematics, without applications. However, illustrating Eugene Wigner's principle of “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences,” topology is now present in our understanding of many different real world phenomena.

In this mini-symposium, Robert MacPherson, Hermann Weyl Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, whose work has introduced radically new approaches to the topology of singular spaces and promoted investigations across a great spectrum of mathematics, will explore “What is Topology?” A Faculty member at the Institute since 1994, MacPherson works in several fields of geometry-topology, algebraic geometry, differential geometry and singularity theory.

Randall Kamien, Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss topology as it relates to liquid crystals, such as those found in computer screens. Kamien, a Member (1992–95, 2009–10) in the Schools of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, works on liquid crystals, foams, soft self-assembly and biological physics.

A Member (2003­–08) and Visitor (2008–09) in the School of Natural Sciences, Raúl Rabadán will describe how topology modifies our understanding of the evolutionary “Tree of Life.” An Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University, Rabadán leads an interdisciplinary team that develops and implements mathematical and computational tools to extract biologically and clinically relevant information from large data sets, with interests in infectious diseases and cancer.

This mini-symposium is free and open to the public. For more information on other lectures at the Institute, visit ww.ias.edu/events