Databases and Discovery in Arithmetic
- Speaker
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Brendan Hassett, Ph.D.Jonathan Nelson University Professor of Mathematics
Director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, Brown University
The 2025 lecture series in mathematics and computer science is “Discovering Mathematics Through Computers.” Computers are revolutionizing the way we explore mathematical concepts. In this series, mathematicians will discuss how computational techniques are enabling new approaches to developing conjectures and proving and verifying theorems. Topics will include algorithmic number theory, formal proof verification and the role of machine learning and computational simulations in uncovering new mathematical insights. These lectures will highlight the synergy between mathematics and computer science, illustrating how digital tools expand mathematical knowledge’s frontiers.
2025 Lecture Series Themes
Biology: Mechanisms of Evolution
Mathematics and Computer Science: Discovering Mathematics Through Computers
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Arithmetic geometry is at the heart of pure mathematics, and modern computing power and algorithms are transforming the field. Massive parallel computations are now routinely used to construct large data sets and solve long-standing open problems. At the same time, sites like the L-Functions and Modular Forms Database are resources for anyone curious about number theory. Such databases also offer training data for machine-learning approaches to research problems.
In this Presidential Lecture, Brendan Hassett will survey how such datasets are created and maintained, their value to the community, the potential for future breakthroughs and implications for the future of mathematical research.
About the Speaker
Brendan Hassett joined the Brown University faculty in 2015 and became director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics in 2016. His research is in algebraic geometry, the study of geometric objects defined as solutions to polynomial equations. Brendan has written 75 research papers and authored or co-edited eight books. He chaired the Rice University mathematics department from 2009 to 2014. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Brendan received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1996 and spent four years at the University of Chicago as a Dickson Instructor and NSF postdoctoral fellow.