Patterns in the Primes

Name: Patterns in the Primes
Start: 2015-11-18T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2015-11-18T18:15:00-05:00
Location: Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium

Wednesday November 18, 2015

About Simons Foundation Lectures

Simons Foundation Lectures are free public colloquia related to basic science and mathematics. These high-level talks are intended for professors, students, postdocs and business professionals, but interested people from the metropolitan area are welcome as well.

Whole numbers are made up of a product of prime numbers, much like molecules are made up of atoms. Prime numbers are the fundamental constituent parts of whole numbers, and each whole number equals its own unique product of primes, like DNA identifies an individual. Prime numbers have always been an important area of study for mathematicians, as will be discussed in this talk.

Prime numbers have intrigued mathematicians, amateur and professional alike, for thousands of years. Some of the most pertinent questions today probably stem from classical times. In this lecture, Dr. Granville will discuss some well-known patterns in the primes and explain some of the latest progress. The latest research makes headway into some of the oldest conundrums, often using methods that are quite surprising.

About the Speaker

Professor Granville has been a research professor in the United States (Georgia), Canada (Montreal), and the UK (London), working mostly in his beloved subject of number theory. He has been an expert on Fermat’s Last Theorem, the abc conjecture and now prime numbers. He is the author of over one hundred research papers, many expository articles and forthcoming books, including a graphic novel about doing research in mathematics. He is renowned for helping nurture young talent, including several of the world’s leading number theoretic researchers today.