Peter Sarnak Discusses Solutions to Equations in Integers

Peter Sarnak, Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, will discuss how, through the works of Fermat, Gauss, and Lagrange, we have come to understand which positive integers can be represented as sums of two, three, or four squares in his talk, Solutions to Equations in Integers. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.
Professor Sarnak will provide insights into Hilbert's 11th problem, from 1900, and its complete solution, which relies on recent advances in number theory and related fields over the years. He will explain some of these developments, as well as certain far-reaching conjectures that the problem has inspired.
Professor Sarnak, who joined the Faculty of the Institute in July 2007, has made major contributions to number theory and to questions in analysis motivated by number theory. His interest in mathematics is wide-ranging, and his current research focuses on the theory of zeta functions and automorphic forms with applications to number theory, combinatorics and mathematical physics. He is also an outstanding mentor, working closely with younger mathematicians and inspiring enormous enthusiasm for his subject.
He received his undergraduate education at the University of Witwatersrand and was awarded a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1980. He was a Member in the School of Mathematics at the Institute from 1999 to 2002 and again from 2005 to 2007. In the course of his career, he has served on the faculty of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University, Stanford University and Princeton University, where he has been the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics since 2002.
The American Mathematical Society awarded Professor Sarnak the Levi L. Conant Prize in 2003 and the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in 2005. In 2002, he was named a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of The Royal Society of London.
For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.