BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Simons Foundation - ECPv6.6.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Simons Foundation X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Simons Foundation REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20140309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20141102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20150308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20151101T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150225T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150225T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20150107T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164204Z UID:284-1424883600-1424889900@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Molecular and Neural Architecture of Circuits Underlying Social Behavior in the Mouse DESCRIPTION:4:15 pm: Tea\n5:00 pm: Lecture\n6:15 pm: Reception \nMore information coming soon. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/molecular-and-neural-architecture-of-circuits-underlying-social-behavior-in-the-mouse/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Autism: Emerging Concepts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180824/catherine_dulac.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150222T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150228T000000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20141002T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T172052Z UID:3799-1424563200-1425081600@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:New Directions in Approximations Algorithms (2015) DESCRIPTION:February 22-28\, 2015\n\n \nOrganizers:\nSanjeev Arora\, Princeton University\nUriel Feige\, Weizmann Institute\nMichel Goemans\, Massachusetts Institute of Technology\nDavid Shmoys\, Cornell University \nThis is the second Simons Symposium on Approximation Algorithms for NP-hard problems. The first\, in January 2013\, focused on core techniques and problems of this field. The upcoming meeting is expected to also highlight how the notion of approximation has found uses in other areas\, including mechanism design\, combinatorial optimization\, online algorithms\, machine learning\, big-data algorithms\, differential privacy and discrepancy theory. \nThe schedule will be a mix of surveys and talks about new results. The structure will be informal and provide time for intense group discussions about open problems. Not all attendees will be expected to give long talks.\n  \n\nAgenda & Lecture Slides\n\n\n\n\n Monday \n\n\n\n Tim Roughgarden Approximation and Algorithmic Game Theory \n\n\n\n Constantinos Daskalakis Removing Mechanism to Algorithm Design (PDF) \n\n\n\n Bobby Kleinberg Security Problems with Non-uniform Arrival Order (PDF) \n\n\n\n Mohit Singh Linear Programs & Algorithms for Capacitated Facility Location (PDF) \n\n\n\n Tuesday \n\n\n\n Prasad Raghavendra Lower Bounds on the Size of Semidefinite Programs (PDF) \n\n\n\n David Steurer Lower Bounds on Semidefinite Programming Relaxations \n\n\n\n Raghu Meka Sum-of-Squares and Planted Clique (PDF) \n\n\n\n Moses Charikar Spectral Embedding of k-cliques\, Graph Partitioning and k-Means (PDF) \n\n\n\n Uriel Fiege A Prediction Game (PDF) \n\n\n Wednesday \n\n\n\n Avrim Blum Connections Between Learning and Approximation \n\n\n\n Sanjeev Arora Linear Algebra ++ and Unsupervised Machine Learning \n\n\n\n Satish Rao Sherman’s Algorithm for Approximate Maximum Flow: Cut Approximation\, Preconditioning and Multiplicative Weights \n\n\n Thursday \n\n\n\n Nikhil Bansal & Thomas Rothvoss Discrepency and Approximation (PDFs: Part I\, Part II)\n\n\n\n Konstantin Makarychev Solving Optimization Problems with Diseconomies of Scale via Decoupling (PDF) \n\n\n\n Ola Svensson Approximating ATSP by Relaxing Connectivity (PDF) \n\n\n\n Julia Chuzoy Excluded Grid Theorem: Improved and Simplified (PDF) \n\n\n\n Friday \n\n\n\n Kunal Talwar Approximation Algorithms and Differential Privacy \n\n\n\n Shuchi Chawla Approximate Optimality via Simple Tuthful Mechanisms \n\n\n\n Roy Schwartz Fast and Simple Algorithms for Submodular Maximization (PDF) \n\n\n\n Nikhil Bansal Independent Sets in Sparse Graphs (PDF) \n\n\n → View/download full agenda PDF \n\nParticipants\n\n\n\nSanjeev Arora\nPrinceton University\n\n\nNikhil Bansal\nEindhoven University of Technology\n\n\nAvrim Blum\nCarnegie Mellon University\n\n\nMoses Charikar\nPrinceton University\n\n\nShuchi Chawla\nUniversity of Wisconsin\n\n\nJulia Chuzhoy\nToyota Technological Institute at Chicago\n\n\nCostis Daskalakis\nMIT\n\n\nIrit Dinur\nWeizmann Institute of Science\n\n\nUriel Feige\nWeizmann Institute of Science\n\n\nMichel Goemans\nMIT\n\n\nBobby Kleinberg\nCornell University\n\n\nKonstantin Makarychev\nMicrosoft Research\n\n\nRaghu Meka\nInstitute for Advanced Study\n\n\nPrasad Raghavendra\nUC Berkeley\n\n\nSatish Rao\nUC Berkeley\n\n\nThomas Rothvoss\nUniversity of Washington\n\n\nTim Roughgarden\nStanford University\n\n\nRoy Schwartz\nPrinceton University\n\n\nDavid Shmoys\nCornell University\n\n\nMohit Singh\nMicrosoft Research\n\n\nDavid Steurer\nCornell University\n\n\nOla Svensson\nÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne\n\n\nKunal Talwar\nMicrosoft Research\n\n\n (Download Participants PDF)\n\n\n \n \n« Back to Simons Symposia URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/new-directions-in-approximations-algorithms-2015/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150218T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150218T180000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20170428T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164155Z UID:464-1424278800-1424282400@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:The Origin of Specificity in Regulated Protein Degradation DESCRIPTION:One of the characteristic features of life is specificity. It emerges in metabolism\, information transfer from DNA to protein\, embryology\, immunology and virtually every other process. Its explanation on the molecular level is thermodynamic stability and structural complementarity. Yet one disturbing issue persists: the protein and nucleic acid sequences coding for that specificity are generally too small to distinguish actual partners from competitors. Similarly\, protein degradation conveys specificity through very short sequences. The process is so kinetically complex that bulk kinetic experiments and a few molecular structures are insufficient to explain how specificity is achieved. Using single molecule kinetic measurements\, we have deconvolved much of that specificity. The results reveal a novel process based loosely on some original ideas of kinetic proofreading\, by John Hopfield and Jacques Ninio. The unraveling of the details of the ubiquitin mechanism has led us to think more generally about the tradeoffs in biology between specificity and speed and the limits to which energy consumption can optimize that tradeoff. These conclusions based on understanding the mechanism of protein degradation may be relevant to other biochemical processes\, such as phosphorylation and transcription. \nMarc W. Kirschner\, Ph.D. graduated from Northwestern University in 1966 and received his Ph.D. from the University of California\, Berkeley in 1971. Following postdoctoral research at Berkeley and at the University of Oxford\, he was appointed as Assistant Professor at Princeton University in 1972 and full Professor in 1978. In 1978\, he moved to the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California\, San Francisco as a Professor. After fifteen years at the University of California\, San Francisco\, Dr. Kirschner moved to Harvard Medical School in 1993 to become the founding Chair of the Department of Cell Biology. In 2003\, he established the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and became its first Chair. In 2009 he was named University Professor\, Harvard’s highest professorial distinction. \nDr. Kirschner’s laboratory investigates three broad\, diverse areas: regulation of the cell cycle\, the role of cytoskeleton in cell morphogenesis\, and mechanisms of establishing the basic vertebrate body plan. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/the-origin-of-specificity-in-regulated-protein-degradation/ CATEGORIES:Simons Science Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20150213 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20150215 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20150226T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T171855Z UID:2557-1423785600-1423958399@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Simons Collaboration on the Many Electron Problem Annual Meeting 2015 DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/foundation-hosts-annual-meeting-of-many-electron-collaboration/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/12024109/N4A3002.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150211T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150211T181500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20141028T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164349Z UID:276-1423674000-1423678500@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Cosmic Microwave Background: Observational Tests of Theories of the Early Universe DESCRIPTION:We live in a remarkable era. We can directly see what our universe was like 13.8 billion years ago. We use observations to test some of our wildest imaginings about how our universe began. Eiichiro Komatsu will summarize the current observational results and the state of affairs on theories of the early universe. \nIn this lecture\, Komatsu will describe the ‘cosmic microwave background\,’ the light remnants of the Big Bang. With this light\, we can directly see the physical state of the universe when it was very young. Detailed analyses of this light show a remarkable fact: All the cosmic structures\, including galaxies\, stars\, planets and ourselves\, originate from small quantum mechanical fluctuations present in the early universe. Such extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence\, and Komatsu and his group believe they have such evidence. He will describe the physics of the cosmic microwave background\, discuss observational results and explain what they mean for our understanding of how the universe began. \nEiichiro Komatsu uses theoretical physics and experimental data to study the origin\, evolution and constituents of our universe. He received his Ph.D. from Tohoku University in Japan in 2001. After being a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and spending nine years at the University of Texas as faculty\, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany in 2012 to serve as a director. He has received numerous awards\, including the American Astronomical Society’s Lancelot Berkeley Prize in 2013. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/cosmic-microwave-background-observational-tests-of-theories-of-the-early-universe/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Astronomy, Cosmology and Particle Physics ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180815/komatsu.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20150201 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20150208 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20170911T221817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T171752Z UID:25733-1422748800-1423353599@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Non-Archimedean and Tropical Geometry (2015) DESCRIPTION:February 1-7\, 2015\n\n \nOrganizers:\nMatt Baker\, Georgia Institute of Technology\nSame Payne\, Yale University \nThis symposium focused on setting a clear agenda for future developments in the related fields of tropical and nonarchimedean analytic geometry. One of the goals of the meeting was to produce high-quality expository material presenting the methods\, results and ambitions of these active research areas. Another was to identify problems in other fields of mathematics that could be amenable to tropical and nonarchimedean analytic methods and establish new rigorous links with those neighboring fields. \nTopics discussed included: \n\nConnections between birational geometry\, minimal model program\, and skeletons of Berkovich spaces \nThe recent work of Mustata\, Nicaise\, and Xu\, which relates Kontsevich-Soibelman skeletons of Berkovich spaces to skeletons of SNC formal models\nExistence and uniqueness of solutions to nonarchimedean Monge Ampere by Boucksom\, Favre and Jonsson\, and Yuan and Zhang \nPossible applications of existence and uniqueness for nonarchimedean partial differential equations in birational and arithmetic geometry\nRelations between as well as applications of various notions of higher dimensional potential theory on Berkovich spaces\n\n\nAgenda\, Notes & Materials\n\nOrganizers Matt Baker and Sam Payne provided the following documents that highlight open problems and topics discussed at the Non-Archimedean and Tropical Geometry symposium. \n• Summary (PDF)\n • Problem Session Notes (PDF) \nOrganizers’ site: http://users.math.yale.edu/~sp547/SimonsSymposium2015.html \n\n\nMonday\n\n\n\n\n\nJohan de Jong\nA remark on a paper of Thuillier\n\n\n\nDustin Cartwright\nOn homotopy types of analytifications. (PDF)\n\n\n\nYuri Tschinkel\nIgusa integrals and volume asymptotics in analytic and adelic geometry (joint work with A. Chambert-Loir) (PDF) \n\n\n\n\nOpen Problem Session\nModerator: Ravi Vakil\n\n\n\nJune Huh\nA tropical approach to a Hodge conjecture for positive currents (PDF)\n\n\nTuesday\n\n\n\n\n\nMircea Mustata\nWeight functions and skeleta (PDF)\n\n\n\nChenyang Xu\nSkeleton and dual complex (PDF)\n\n\n\nJohannes Nicaise\nPoles of maximal order of Igusa zeta functions (PDF)\n\n\n\nMichael Temkin\nMetrization of differential pluriforms on Berkovich spaces (PDF)\n\n\n\nWednesday\n\n\n\n\n\nMattias Jonsson\nSolution to a non-Archimedean Monge-Ampere equation I (PDF)\n\n\n\nSebastien Boucksom\nSolution to a non-Archimedean Monge-Ampere equation II (PDF)\n\n\n\nWalter Gubler\nA tropical approach to non-archimedean Arakelov theory (PDF)\n\n\nThursday\n\n\n\n\n\nSam Payne\nTropical Brill–Noether theory and its applications I (PDF)\n\n\n\nDavid Jensen\nTropical Brill–Noether theory and its applications II (PDF)\n\n\n\nOpen Problem Session\nModerator: Antoine Chambert-Loir\n\n\n\nVladimir Berkovich\nComplex analytic vanishing cycles for formal schemes (PDF)\n\n\n\nFriday\n\n\n\n\n\nAntoine Ducros\nPiecewise monomial skeleta (PDF)\n\n\n\nKiran Kedlaya\nConvergence polygons for connections on nonarchimedean curves (PDF)\n\n\n\nAnnette Werner\nSkeletons and tropicalizations (PDF)\n\n\n\nDan Abramovich\nArtin fans (PDF)\n\n\n → Download full agenda PDF\n\nParticipants\n\n\n\nDan Abramovich\nBrown University\n\n\nMatt Baker\nGeorgia Tech\n\n\nVladimir Berkovich\nWeizman Institute\n\n\nSebastian Boucksom\nParis 6\n\n\nDustin Cartwright\nYale University\n\n\nAntoine Chambert-Loir\nUniversité Paris-Sud\n\n\nJohan de Jong\nColumbia University\n\n\nAntoine Ducros\nParis 6\n\n\nTyler Foster\nUniversity of Michigan\n\n\nWalter Gubler\nUniversity of Regensburg\n\n\nJune Huh\nPrinceton / IAS / Clay Math Institute\n\n\nDavid Jensen\nUniversity of Kentucky\n\n\nMattias Jonsson\nUniversity of Michigan\n\n\nKiran Kedlaya\nUC San Diego\n\n\nKlaus Künnemann\nUniversität Regensburg \n\n\nMircea Mustata\nUniversity of Michigan\n\n\nJohannes Nicaise\nKU Leuven\n\n\nSam Payne\nYale University\n\n\nJoe Rabinoff\nGeorgia Tech University\n\n\nMichael Temkin\nEinstein Institute of Mathematics\n\n\nYuri Tschinkel\nSimons Foundation\n\n\nRavi Vakil\nStanford University\n\n\nAnnette Werner\nGoethe-Universität Frankfurt\n\n\nChenyang Xu\nBeijing International Center of Mathematics Research\n\n\n → Download Participants PDF\n\n\n \n \n« Back to Simons Symposia URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/non-archimedean-and-tropical-geometry-2015/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20150128T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20150128T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20141024T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164337Z UID:274-1422464400-1422470700@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:One Brain\, Many Genomes: Somatic Mutation and Genomic Variability in the Human Cerebral Cortex DESCRIPTION:Due to the winter storm\, the Wednesday\, January 28\, 2015 5:00 p.m. Autism: Emerging Concepts lecture “One Brain\, Many Genomes: Somatic Mutation and Genomic Variability in the Human Cerebral Cortex” by Christopher A. Walsh is canceled and will be rescheduled. \n4:15 pm: Tea\n5:00 pm: Lecture\n6:15 pm: Reception \nChristopher Walsh and his team are interested in genetic mechanisms of cerebral cortical development and abnormalities of cortical development resulting in intellectual disability\, autism and epilepsy. The lab pioneered the analysis of recessive causes of autism by studying children with autism whose parents share ancestry. \nWalsh will review recent work on ‘somatic mutations’ — de novo mutations that are present in some brain cells but not in all cells of the body — in several neurological conditions associated with intellectual disability and seizures. The talk will also cover the extent to which somatic mutations are an inevitable part of normal brain development\, such that the neurons in the human brain are a tapestry of cells with distinct genomes. He will briefly discuss the possible relevance of somatic mutations to autism. \n  \nChristopher A. Walsh is chief of the genetics and genomics division at Boston Children’s Hospital\, Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School\, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Chicago\, trained in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and has worked at Boston Children’s Hospital since 2006. \nIf this lecture is videotaped\, it will be posted here after production. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/one-brain-many-genomes-somatic-mutation-and-genomic-variability-in-the-human-cerebral-cortex/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Autism: Emerging Concepts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180812/christopherawalsh.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141212T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141212T173000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164326Z UID:269-1418387400-1418405400@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:MEG/EEG Part 2: Analysis\, Application and Interpretation DESCRIPTION:Speakers:\nJonathan Simon\, University of Maryland\nTimothy Roberts\, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia\nJonathan Winawer\, New York University \n  \n \nSignal Analysis Primer and Applications\nJonathan Z. Simon\, University of Maryland \nModern cognitive neuroscientists using electrocorticography (ECoG)\, MEG and electroencephalography (EEG) are under substantial pressure to use advanced signal processing and analysis techniques\, but typically receive little formal training in their usage. \nJonathan Simon\, whose departmental affiliations are with both electrical engineering and biology\, will provide a signal analysis tutorial aimed at cognitive neuroscientists who wish to better understand their own signal analysis methods. The tutorial will be a mix of an elementary primer with a collection of useful tips and tricks\, all aimed at cognitive neuroscientists who routinely analyze ECoG\, MEG or EEG signals. \nThe goal will be to expand signal-processing intuition by bridging the gap between mathematical abstractions (e.g.\, complex numbers\, Fourier transforms and functional analysis) and their applications (e.g.\, phase relationships\, frequency bands\, and desirable and undesirable filter properties)\, using a mix of mathematical and illustrative examples. \n  \n \nApplications of Timing and Spectro-temporal Analysis\nTimothy Roberts\, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia \nMagnetoencephalography (MEG) offers intrinsic capabilities afforded by high temporal resolution. Not only can subtle shifts in response timing be resolved\, but higher frequency oscillatory brain activity can also be precisely defined. Combined with advanced spatial localization algorithms\, this offers a powerful five-dimensional modality capable of interrogating the ‘where?’\, ‘when?’ and\, indeed\, ‘what?’ of brain function. \nBecause spatially resolved signals can be obtained\, each rich with spectro-temporal features\, analysis of both spatial (regional) functional connectivity\, and cross-spectral coupling\, this technique presents insight into the dynamics and regional interplay of brain networks. \nTimothy Roberts will discuss these technical capabilities and examine the clinical research opportunities they afford\, especially in the field of neuropsychiatric disorders\, in which disruptions of neural systems\, circuitry and connectivity may be implicated. The talk will focus on the field of autism\, but will also illustrate the relevance of the spatio-spectro-temporal approach to other disorders\, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder\, schizophrenia and mild traumatic brain injury. \nAdditionally\, integration of MEG characteristics with converging evidence from multimodal studies (e.g.\, magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy) will augment the neurobiologic interpretation of the observed MEG features\, and thus define a path toward the development of ‘biological markers’ for use in diagnosis\, prognosis and treatment development and evaluation. \n  \n \nSpectral Analysis of ECoG in Humans\nJonathan Winawer\, New York University \nThere are many tools available to measure activity in the living human brain. The two most widely studied human brain responses are the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD)signal\, typically measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)\, and perturbations in electromagnetic fields\, measured with magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography (EEG)\, including subdural electroencephalography (ECoG). \nBoth the BOLD response and field perturbations arise from the activity of large populations of neurons. Understanding how each of these two signals depends on neural activity\, and how the signals relate to one another\, is a matter of considerable importance in human neuroscience. Jonathan Winawer will review methods and empirical findings in the spectral analyses of ECoG data\, and propose links between components of the ECoG signal\, the BOLD signal and the underlying cortical circuitry. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/megeeg-part-2-analysis-application-and-interpretation/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Biotech Symposia ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180805/thumb1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141210T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141210T180000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20170428T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164316Z UID:462-1418230800-1418234400@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Why Prove Theorems? DESCRIPTION:Since at least the time when it was understood that the circumference of a circle is pi multiplied by its diameter\, the applications of mathematics have raced on far ahead of the foundations of the subject itself. By considering a variety of examples\, principally from the 19th century\, we will explore the tension between mathematics and its applications\, and reasons why it remains a valuable and rewarding occupation to develop the necessary framework for existing and “well understood” theories. If time permits\, I will give a short discussion of recent work I have done on the mathematical foundations for diffusion models in population genetics. \n\nView/Download slides (PDF)\nView/Download “Poincaré on: Why do Analysis?” (PDF)\n\nCharles L. Epstein received his Ph.D. from New York University in 1983. After three years as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University\, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania\, where he currently holds the Thomas A. Scott Chair in Mathematics. He has worked in spectral theory\, hyperbolic geometry\, univalent function theory\, microlocal analysis\, several complex variables and index theory. For more than a decade\, he has also worked on a range of problems in medical imaging\, image analysis\, computational electromagnetics and mathematical aspects of population genetics. He was a Sloan Foundation Fellow in 1988–90. In 2007\, he founded the Graduate Group in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science at the University of Pennsylvania\, which he continues to chair. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/why-prove-theorems/ CATEGORIES:Simons Science Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10181153/Charles-Epstein.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141203T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141203T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140611T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164305Z UID:194-1417626000-1417632300@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Learning to Move DESCRIPTION:Basic motor skills such as looking\, reaching and walking do not simply appear as the result of maturation. Rather\, infants must learn to move. Learning entails discovering new forms of movements to suit the task at hand and using perceptual information to select and modify movements adaptively. \nIn this lecture\, Karen E. Adolph will discuss how infants learn to generate and control their motor actions. Learning to move involves more than merely lifting the limbs against gravity. Adaptive action requires that movements be constructed\, selected and modified in accordance with the constraints and opportunities provided by the physical and social environment. The learning process is geared toward flexibility rather than rote performance: Infants are ‘learning to learn’ rather than acquiring fixed solutions. \nJames C. Galloway will provide post-lecture commentary on how research on typical development can inform motor functioning in autism. \nKaren E. Adolph is professor of psychology at the Center for Neuroscience at New York University\, as well as a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. She is incoming president of the International Society for Infant Studies and is leading the Databrary.org project to enable open sharing of video data among developmental scientists. \nAdolph has pioneered research on motor skill acquisition in infants\, and in particular how infants learn to use perceptual and social information to guide actions adaptively. Her research also examines effects of body growth\, exploratory activity\, environmental and social supports\, and culture on perceptual-motor learning and development. \nJames C. (Cole) Galloway is director of the Pediatric Mobility Lab and Design Studio\, and professor of physical therapy at the University of Delaware. Galloway began focusing on young children following a postdoctoral fellowship with Esther Thelen. His research focuses on how multiple biological\, psychological and environmental factors contribute to the emergence of exploratory behaviors. Current projects focus on advancing the technology and training to assist children in maximizing their daily exploration. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/learning-to-move/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Autism: Emerging Concepts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180649/adolph2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141203T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141203T000000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140103T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164256Z UID:1996-1417564800-1417564800@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:December 3\, 2014: Learning to Move DESCRIPTION:December 3\, 2014\, 4:30-6:30 p.m. EST\nGerald D. Fischbach Auditorium at the Simons Foundation\n160 Fifth Avenue\, New York\, NY \nIn this lecture\, Karen E. Adolph will discuss how infants learn to generate and control their motor actions. Learning to move involves more than merely lifting the limbs against gravity. Adaptive action requires that movements be constructed\, selected and modified in accordance with the constraints and opportunities provided by the physical and social environment. The learning process is geared toward flexibility rather than rote performance: Infants are ‘learning to learn’ rather than acquiring fixed solutions. \nJames C. Galloway\, associate professor of physical therapy at University of Delaware\, will provide post-lecture commentary. \nTo attend this event\, sign up here. \nIf this lecture is videotaped\, it will be posted here after production. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/december-3-2014-learning-to-move/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/11205857/adolph.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141119T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141119T180000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20170428T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164505Z UID:460-1416416400-1416420000@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Topology and Complexity DESCRIPTION:Topology\, the “rubber sheet geometry\,” studies the properties of objects that do not change when they are pulled and stretched. Accepting somewhat fuzzy input\, it is the part of mathematics that is typically applied when qualitative conclusions are reached. However\, it has a — fascinating and not very well understood — quantitative aspect that is important in understanding singularities\, and potentially\, high-dimensional noisy data as well as aspects of large-scale geometry of networks. The talk will be a series of vignettes that display a number of different phenomena that arise or are illuminated when one keeps track of the complexity of geometric constructions. \n• View/download slides (PDF)\nShmuel Weinberger is a Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from the Courant Institute in 1982 and has been at the University of Chicago since 1984. He is a geometer and enjoys studying geometric problems — or any problem that has a hidden geometric aspect — using tools of algebra or analysis. He is a fellow of the AMS and of the AAAS\, has been a Sloan Fellow\, a Presidential Young Investigator and a Hardy lecturer of the London Mathematical Society\, and has given a number of other distinguished lectures. In fall of 2011\, he was Simons Professor at MSRI. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/topology-and-complexity/ CATEGORIES:Simons Science Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10181151/Weinberger-square-crop.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141118T133000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141118T170000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140912T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T171712Z UID:271-1416317400-1416330000@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Celebrating the Mathematics of Maxim Kontsevich DESCRIPTION:A day to explore Maxim Kontsevich’s contributions to the field of mathematics. \nSpeakers: \n\n Anton Kapustin\n \nAnton Kapustin\nSimons Center for Geometry and Physics\nQuantum Geometry: A Reunion of Physics and Mathematics \nSince the time of Isaac Newton\, there has been a flow of ideas between mathematics and physics\, which greatly influenced both fields. In the 20th century\, both physics and mathematics underwent revolutionary changes and for a time parted ways. Over the last three decades\, the interaction has been renewed\, in a significant part thanks to the work of Maxim Kontsevich. The ideas and methods of modern quantum theory have been used to address classical mathematical problems in geometry and topology. String theory in particular was a fruitful source of such ideas. In his talk\, Kapustin will attempt to give a glimpse of one instance of this interaction: the concept of quantized space-time. \nAnton Kapustin grew up in Moscow\, Russia (then Soviet Union). He studied physics first at Moscow State University and then at the California Institute of Technology where he got his Ph. D. in 1997. After spending four years as a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study\, he became a professor at the California Institute of Technology. Currently he is a professor at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics\, Stony Brook\, New York. His main areas of interest are quantum theory and mathematical physics. \n  \n\n Tony Pantev\n \nTony Pantev\nUniversity of Pennsylvania\, Department of Mathematics\nThe Ubiquity of Categories \nA trademark feature of Kontsevich’s mathematical vision is his ability to penetrate and unravel geometric complexities by distilling them through algebraic and categorical constructions. In this lecture\, Pantev will review Kontsevich’s groundbreaking work on geometric dualities and categorical mirror symmetry. He will focus on insights that have revolutionized long accepted theories and altered established mathematical paradigms. This will include snippets of Kontsevich’s work on commutative and non-commutative Hodge theory\, wall crossing\, spaces of stability conditions and motivic enumerative invariants. Pantev will also discuss applications to symplectic topology\, the special geometry of integrable systems\, and topological quantum field theory. \nTony Pantev received his Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a C.L.E. Moore Instructor at MIT\, a Sloan Research Fellow\, and has held visiting positions at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge\, England\, the Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas in Guanajuato\, Mexico\, Ohio State University and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton and has given numerous invited talks. Pantev’s research interests include algebraic and differential geometry\, Hodge theory and mathematical physics. He has supervised 20 graduate students and serves on the editorial board of Advances in Mathematics\, European Journal of Mathematics\, and Research in Mathematical Sciences. \n  \nThis event is co-hosted by Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/celebrating-the-mathematics-of-maxim-kontsevich/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141112T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141112T181500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164444Z UID:261-1415811600-1415816100@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Belief Propagation Algorithms with Applications to Cancer Genomics DESCRIPTION:Belief propagation is an algorithmic method that provides solutions to many complex machine-learning problems. \nBelief propagation algorithms have numerous applications in coding theory\, vision and many other areas of machine learning. In this talk\, Christian Borgs will give an introduction to belief propagation\, discuss how the accuracy of belief propagation has been rigorously established\, and present recent applications to systems biology. Examples include simple applications to yeast networks\, complex applications in the discovery of pathways in cancer genomics\, and modifications to distinguish patient-specific pathways from more general disease pathways. \nChristian Borgs is cofounder of Microsoft Research in Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, where he serves as principal researcher and deputy managing director. He is known for the use of statistical physics methods in computer science\, and focuses on the science of networks\, including mathematical foundations\, graph algorithms\, applications in economics\, and systems biology. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/belief-propagation-algorithms-with-applications-to-cancer-genomics/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Frontiers of Data Science ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180756/borgs.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141107T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141107T173000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164435Z UID:268-1415363400-1415381400@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:MEG/EEG Part 1: Acquisition\, Modeling and Localization DESCRIPTION:MEG and EEG Signals and Their Sources: Insights from Physics\, Physiology and Anatomy\nMatti Hamalainen\, Massachusetts General Hospital \nUnderstanding the biophysics and physiology underlying the generation of detectable extracranial magnetic fields and electric potentials is of prime importance for correct interpretation of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) data. \nMatti Hamalainen will discuss the neural sources of MEG and EEG\, the effects of electromagnetic properties of intervening tissues to MEG and EEG\, as well as similarities and differences between MEG and EEG caused by their different sensitivities to sources in the brain. Finally\, Hamalainen will demonstrate how this information is useful in achieving a better understanding of measurement data than is possible through reliance on analytical source estimation methods alone. \n  \n \nExploiting Temporal Dynamics to Study MEG Cortical Activity and Networks \nRobert Oostenveld\, Donders Institute for Brain\, Cognition and Behavior\, Radboud University Nijmegen\, Netherlands \nElectrophysiology allows study of human brain function with an exquisite temporal resolution. MEG extends the possibilities of EEG with its increased spatial resolution due to the reduced overlap on the channels of the underlying cortical activity. This makes MEG\, in principle\, ideally suited for the noninvasive investigation of dynamics in cortical networks. However\, localizing MEG activity is not a trivial task. Mislocalization of activity affects subsequent estimates of cortical dynamics and network interactions. \nRobert Oostenveld will explain the interaction between cortical temporal dynamics and MEG source localization methods. He will present established and new signal processing methods to explain how temporal dynamics of cortical activity can be exploited to improve the identification of cortical networks. \n \n \nMRI- and fMRI-Informed Source Imaging\nAnthony Norcia\, Stanford University \nThe availability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI (fMRI) data impacts the source localization problem at many levels\, from the creation of models of propagation of fields from sources to sensors\, to the underlying model of the sources themselves. Anatomically based constraints\, be they structural or functionally derived\, can significantly improve the accuracy of source estimates at both the individual participant and the group level. \nAnthony Norcia will review common and emerging approaches to the use of MRI and fMRI in source imaging\, either in formulating constraints on the problem as a means of averaging across participants\, or as an integrated\, multi-modal approach. \n  URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/megeeg-part-1-acquisition-modeling-and-localization/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Biotech Symposia END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141105T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141105T181500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164425Z UID:259-1415204100-1415211300@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Geometric and Multiscale Methods for Statistical Learning DESCRIPTION:Large\, high-dimensional datasets appear in a wide variety of applications. Extracting information from these datasets and performing machine-learning tasks on them can be challenging for both fundamental statistical reasons and because of computational barriers. \nIn this lecture\, Mauro Maggioni will discuss a family of ideas\, algorithms and results for learning from high-dimensional data. These methods rely on the idea that complex\, high-dimensional data has geometric structures that\, once discovered\, assist in a variety of tasks\, including statistical learning and data visualization. He will focus on multiscale decompositions that can be used to solve problems such as dictionary learning\, classification and regression. These decompositions lead to the construction of novel probabilistic models for data\, new notions of learning and approximation of high-dimensional stochastic systems. \n  \nMauro Maggioni works at the intersection of harmonic analysis\, approximation theory\, probability\, machine learning\, spectral graph theory and statistical signal processing. He received his B.S. in mathematics from the Universitá degli Studi in Milan\, Italy\, and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis. He was a Gibbs Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Yale University\, and is now professor of mathematics\, electrical and computer engineering\, and computer science at Duke University. He received the Popov Prize in Approximation Theory in 2007\, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and Sloan Fellowship in 2008\, was nominated Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2013\, and is a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. \n  \nIf this lecture is videotaped\, it will be posted here after production. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/geometric-and-multiscale-methods-for-statistical-learning/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Frontiers of Data Science ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180754/Maggioni.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141029T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141029T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164413Z UID:255-1414599300-1414608300@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Dialogue of the Microbiota with the Host Immune System: Implications for Inflammatory Disease and Autism DESCRIPTION:Our immune system is heavily influenced by commensal microbiota — the microbes that reside within us. In the intestine\, specific microbes induce pro- or anti-inflammatory white blood cells called lymphocytes that maintain a healthy homeostasis.  An imbalance in microbiota can result in dysregulated T cells that contribute to autoimmunity and\, potentially\, to autism. \nIn this lecture\, Dan Littman will describe how intestinal commensal bacteria shape functions of immune system cells that prevent invasion by pathogenic microbes but can also contribute to systemic inflammation. Th17 cells\, which participate in multiple autoimmune diseases\, are regulated by the microbiota. These cells also have a key pathogenic role in the maternal immune activation (MIA) model of autism\, which posits that the prenatal environment and activation of the maternal immune system may contribute to autism. Activation of the pregnant mother’s innate immune response may result in lifelong behavioral defects in the offspring. Littman will discuss implications for preventing or treating autism. \nDan Littman earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University\, St. Louis\, completing a postdoctoral fellowship with Richard Axel at Columbia University. He was professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of California\, San Francisco\, before joining New York University\, where he is the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/dialogue-of-the-microbiota-with-the-host-immune-system-implications-for-inflammatory-disease-and-autism/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Autism: Emerging Concepts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180750/Dan-Littman-3.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141025T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141026T170000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20141014T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T164401Z UID:272-1414231200-1414342800@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:MoSAIC Math + Art Festival DESCRIPTION:Columbia University will be hosting a festival celebrating the connections between mathematics and the arts on Saturday\, October 25 and Sunday\, October 26\, 2014\, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. The festival will be held at Columbia Secondary School (425 W. 123rd St between Amsterdam Ave. and Morningside Ave.) and is free and open to the public. \nThe MoSAIC Festival includes a variety of hands-on workshops\, lectures\, a mathematical art exhibit\, short films and an area for informal exchange. It is designed to be easily accessible to audiences high-school age and up. \nSome of the featured presenters at the festival include:\n• Kelly Delp\, professor of mathematics at Ithaca College in New York\, who will talk about how geometric topology applies to fashion design.\n• George Hart\, research professor of computer science at Stony Brook University in New York\, who is also an internationally known sculptor and contributes the Mathematical Impressions video series to simonsfoundation.org.\n• Craig Kaplan\, professor of computer graphics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario\, Canada\, who makes amazing graphic art and designs\, including Islamic star patterns.\n• Mark Mitton\, a professional magician who performs all around the world and will demonstrate the amazing power of mathematics.\n• Frank Morgan\, professor of mathematics at Williams College in Massachusetts\, who makes it exciting to study the geometry of soap bubbles. \nMoSAIC stands for Mathematics of Science\, Art\, Industry\, Culture. The purpose of the MoSAIC project\, which holds festivals at several universities each year across the U.S.\, is to promote awareness of and interest in mathematics through its connection to the arts. MoSAIC is a joint venture of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and the Bridges Organization. \n“Mathematicians see math as art\, and many artists love math. At a MoSAIC Festival these usually separate worlds can unite! The sparks generated will be inspiring\,” says David Eisenbud\, director of MSRI. “A student who is engaged in mathematics through the arts may be hooked and go on and explore further on their own\,” adds George Hart\, Bridges board member and MoSAIC director. \nFrom its location in Berkeley\, California\, MSRI hosts visitors from all over the world to pursue advanced mathematical research\, and is committed to furthering mathematics education from elementary school to the postgraduate level\, as well as furthering the public understanding and appreciation of the beauty and excitement of mathematics. \nThe Bridges Organization oversees the Bridges conference\, an annual five-day conference on connections between mathematics and the arts. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/mosaic-math-art-festival/ LOCATION:Columbia University\, Columbia Secondary School\, 425 W 123rd St between Amsterdam & Morningside Ave.\, New York\, NY\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180810/Bridges-2013-zome-and-felt-polyhedra.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20141023 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20141025 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140728T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T171636Z UID:3773-1414022400-1414195199@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:2014 MPS Annual Meeting DESCRIPTION:Thursday\, October 23rd – Friday\, October 24th\, 2014 \n Download the 2014 Annual Meeting booklet (PDF). \nThe Simons Foundation Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) held its second Annual Meeting on October 23 and 24\, 2014. MPS-supported scientists were invited to the foundation to meet\, share ideas and hear talks representing the spectrum of MPS-supported science. The topics ranged from the study of social networks to black hole astrophysics and provided a state-of-the-art overview of current science. \n\n\nThe meeting began with a keynote talk by Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf\, a mathematical physicist who is the director of the Institute for Advanced Study as well as the Leon Levy Professor. Professor Dijkgraaf provided an overview on the connections between quantum field theories and mathematics\, presenting many examples of how these theories have led to new concepts\, uncovered hidden symmetries and provided insights into many long-standing mathematical questions\, in particular\, forming new bridges between algebra and geometry. Dijkgraaf concluded by observing that while there are many varieties of quantum field theories — topological\, conformal\, supersymmetric — giving rise to interesting mathematical structures\, we currently lack an overarching understanding that would provide a unified mathematical foundation for modern-day physics. \nThe next speaker was Jon Kleinberg\, a computer scientist at Cornell. Professor Kleinberg described methods for understanding social network interactions via a mathematical analysis of the underlying graph structure of the network. He discussed the notion of ‘contagion’ or how people are influenced to change an opinion or position by the opinions of their network contacts. He showed that people are more receptive to join a network if they are offered invitations from several independent sources. He also considered the possibility of creating a cascading effect that will produce a global change in the state of the network. Finally\, Professor Kleinberg showed how to identify social relations by considering mathematical properties of graphs representing network connections. In particular\, one can identify with reasonably good probability the spouse of a network member if the spouse is also an active member of the network. It also seems possible to predict with reasonable accuracy whether a new relationship will blossom or falter. \nEmanuel Gull\, a physicist from the University of Michigan and group director in the Simons Collaboration on the Many Electron Problem\, discussed the current state of our understanding of the quantum mechanical problem posed by systems comprised of large numbers of interacting electrons and presented initial results emerging from the Simons Collaboration. He observed that while the equations describing the behavior of systems of interacting electrons have been known for many years\, standard methods of solution become computationally intractable even for modest numbers of electrons\, on the order of 40–50. Professor Gull presented an overview of new methods\, focusing on the stochastic (Monte Carlo) exploration of abstract spaces defined by formal perturbation expansions and emphasizing the need for numerically controlled and reproducible (by different methods) results. Professor Gull concluded his talk by outlining recent results obtained by members of the Simons Collaboration concerning the Hubbard model\, a canonical model in the field. Gull delineated regimes where the new approaches have solved the problem and regimes where new ideas are needed\, and sketched what some of these ideas might be. \nLarry Guth\, a mathematician from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\, gave an overview of the field of incidence geometry. Problems in this field concern extremal relations between points\, lines and circles and are therefore very easy to state. As an example\, given a configuration of N lines in the plane\, we can ask how many of their intersection points can lie simultaneously on R different lines. We can also ask about the structure of line configurations that give rise to many excess intersection points. Problems of this nature can be understood by high school students but are notoriously difficult to solve. Professor Guth explained how ideas from topology helped solve some basic problems in the field during the 1980s. He then presented a much more recent result\, examining a more subtle problem of a similar nature which was solved using ideas from algebraic geometry. Such ideas have been used in the last decade to solve several fundamental problems that have resisted a solution for more than 50 years. He expressed hope that the incorporation of number theoretic techniques may provide further insight into the structure of extremal configurations. \nAndrea Liu\, from the University of Pennsylvania\, concluded the first day of talks. She presented theoretical and numerical results giving new insights into the properties of ‘glasses’: materials that are solid (have rigidity against shear) but whose atoms are apparently arranged randomly\, rather than in the periodically repeating patterns characteristic of crystals. She considered very simple classical mechanics models of spheres interacting with one another via short-range forces at zero temperature\, showing that as the density of the objects increased\, a ‘jamming’ transition occurred between a low-density liquid-like state that would flow in response to a weak force and a ‘jammed’ state\, in which the positions of the particles are fixed relative to each other and which does not flow in response to a weak force. She showed that the jamming transition was continuous\, characterized by mean-field critical exponents. Remarkably\, the jammed state\, although possessing a shear rigidity\, has properties unlike other rigid solids: an infinitesimal change in pressure generates a non-infinitesimal rearrangement of the particles\, and there is an extraordinarily high density of very low energy excitations. Liu argued that this feature provides a geometric explanation of a long-standing mystery\, namely that in glasses — but not in ordered solids — the lattice contribution to the heat capacity is linear in temperature at low temperature. Professor Liu also drew connections between these results and random matrix theory and reported on recent analytic progress by another group\, based on an infinite dimensional limit. She expressed hope that with the new understanding of these two extreme states\, one might be able to obtain a much better grasp of bulk conditions leading to a better understanding of glassy states in nature. \nThe second day of the meeting began with a talk by Eliot Quataert\, an astrophysicist from the University of California at Berkeley. The talk discussed the central role played by black holes in modern astrophysics. Inflow of matter into a black hole liberates an extraordinary amount of energy\, powering many astrophysical processes and playing a crucial role in large-scale dynamics associated with the structure and formation of galaxies. Professor Quataert reviewed some of the theoretical challenges arising from attempts to simulate the dynamics of plasma that forms around black holes as intergalactic gas swirls around the hole\, ultimately falling into it. A key difficulty is that while the particles in this plasma couple to each other electromagnetically\, inter-particle collisions are so infrequent that the plasma cannot be modeled as a fluid\, and concepts such as temperature and pressure are not relevant. Quataert concluded with a discussion of the possibilities that will be enabled when the gravitational wave observatory Advanced LIGO begins taking data\, and gravitational signals of black hole mergers can be compared to information from conventional telescopes operating in the radio\, infrared\, visible and x-ray regimes. \nScott Sheffield a mathematician from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\, talked about models of random trees\, non-intersecting curves\, surfaces\, growth processes and their interactions. The talk began with beautiful pictures and videos that described fractals coming from complex dynamics\, known as Julia sets\, and the process of gluing Julia sets together to form a sphere. After reviewing the definitions and basic properties of random trees\, curves\, surfaces and growth processes\, Professor Sheffield explained that they can also be glued together\, and that the gluing procedure exposes relations between these concepts. These gluing procedures have been studied extensively in the last five years. For example\, the interface between two glued random surfaces produces a random non-intersecting curve. Random growth processes can be applied to random surfaces instead of the usual flat plane\, and in some cases these processes can be well understood. Apart from producing beautiful pictures\, these studies are intimately related to a better understanding of conformal field theories\, considered in the first talk of the meeting\, and will provide a mathematically rigorous analysis of basic physical systems. \nPaul François\, faculty member at McGill University and one of the inaugural group of investigators in the recently established Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems program\, talked about insights into the immune system obtained from in silico (i.e.\, computational) experiments in which populations of theoretical models of immune systems were allowed to evolve in a computer\, with random ‘mutations’ changing the structure of the equations\, the survival of a given equation determined by measures of fitness derived from biological immune responses. The method produced previously unanticipated equations that accounted for key features of immune response\, including the ability to sense and react to a very small density of ‘non-self’ molecules in the presence of a high density of other stimuli\, and may be more generally applicable in gaining insights into complex phenomena. \nAssaf Naor\, a mathematician from Princeton University and the director of the Simons Collaboration on Algorithms and Geometry\, gave the final talk of the MPS Annual Meeting. He discussed metric spaces\, simple mathematical abstractions of the notion of distance\, in which the only requirement is that the triangle inequality holds. Among metric spaces\, there is a class of doubling metric spaces — a notion that attempts to capture the idea of finite dimensionality. Professor Naor discussed the basic problem of whether or not such abstract spaces can be approximated by the N-dimensional space with its usual Euclidean metric. Surprisingly\, similar problems arise in the analysis of basic algorithms in graph theory. Professor Naor presented evidence that the Heisenberg group\, which is central in the study of quantum mechanics\, also plays a key role in understanding such questions. \n\n  \nTalks\nRobbert Dijkgraaf\nDirector and Leon Levy Professor\, Institute for Advanced Study \nThe Geometry of Quantum Field Theory\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nQuantum field theories are at the foundation of much of theoretical physics\, yet they remain still much of a mystery\, particularly at strong coupling. A recurrent theme over the past decades has been the emergence of geometries that capture the quantum properties of field theories and indicate the deep mathematical structures at play. In this lecture\, Professor Dijkgraaf reviews some of the current progress in elucidating these structures. \nRobbert Dijkgraaf is director and Leon Levy Professor of the Institute for Advanced Study\, one of the world’s leading centers for curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities. \nDijkgraaf is a mathematical physicist who has made important contributions to string theory and the advancement of science education. In addition to discovering deep connections between matrix models\, topological string theory and supersymmetric quantum field theory\, Dijkgraaf has developed precise formulas for the counting of bound states that explain the entropy of certain black holes. \nPast president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-chair (since 2009) of the InterAcademy Council\, Dijkgraaf is a distinguished public policy adviser and passionate advocate for science and the arts. Many of his activities — which have included frequent appearances on Dutch television\, a monthly newspaper column and the launch of the science education website www.Proefjes.nl — are at the interface between science and society. \nJon Kleinberg\nSimons Investigator in Computer Science\nCornell University \nCascading Processes and Network Structure\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nWhen individuals interact in a network\, or when information is shared from person to person\, the spread of the resulting behavior is often modeled as a type of cascade. At the heart of many of these models is a form of threshold-based contagion\, in which an individual’s probability of changing state depends on the number of neighbors who have done so. Prof. Kleinberg analyzes a basic formulation of this threshold contagion process and show how the relative sizes of cascades can depend in subtle ways on the structure of the underlying network. Prof. Kleinberg discusses an approach to these questions that combines graph-theoretic and game-theoretic ideas\, together with an application to information-sharing on Facebook. \nJon Kleinberg is noted for his creativity\, intellectual ability\, research scholarship\, diverse research interests and the impact of his work. He is best known for his contributions in establishing the computational foundations for information retrieval and social networks. His information retrieval work includes the use of link analysis (e.g.\, hubs and authorities) for ranking\, classifying and identifying web communities\, the web as a graph and understanding the success of latent semantic analysis. His work in algorithmic social networks (a field that he can be said to have started) includes the understanding of “small worlds” and decentralized search\, analysis of bursty streams and influence spread in social networks. Kleinberg has done work in many other fields\, including approximation algorithms\, communications networks\, queuing theory\, clustering\, computational geometry\, bioinformatics\, temporal analysis of data streams\, algorithmic game theory\, online algorithms and distributed computing. His influence is augmented by popular papers in Science and Nature and by two widely used texts\, one with Éva Tardos\, Algorithm Design\, and one with David Easley\, Networks\, Crowds and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. \nEmanuel Gull\nSimons Collaboration on the Many Electron Problem\nUniversity of Michigan \nNumerical Methods for the Many-Electron Problem\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nProfessor Gull explains why the determining the quantum mechanical properties of systems of many interacting electrons is hard\, in both the colloquial and the computer science sense and then shows how new ideas and algorithms are improving our understanding of this fundamental question. For the paradigm problem of the two-dimensional Hubbard model\, he shows how new generations of controlled methods have solved the problem for some parameter regimes and will delineate regimes where further work is needed. \nEmanuel Gull works in the general area of computational condensed matter physics with a focus on the study of correlated electronic systems in and out of equilibrium. He is an expert on Monte Carlo methods for quantum systems and one of the developers of the diagrammatic ‘continuoustime’ quantum Monte Carlo methods. His recent work includes the study of the Hubbard model using large cluster dynamical mean-field methods\, the development of vertex function methods for optical (Raman and optical conductivity) probes and the development of bold-line diagrammatic algorithms for quantum impurities out of equilibrium. Professor Gull is involved in the development of open-source computer programs for strongly correlated systems. \nLarry Guth\nSimons Investigator in Mathematics\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology \nThe Polynomial Method in Incidence Geometry\n \nIncidence geometry studies the possible intersection patterns of large numbers of simple objects\, such as lines or circles. For example\, among all arrangements of L lines in the plane\, what is the maximum possible number of r-rich points — points that lie in at least r lines? Prof. Guth discusses some classical theorems and open questions in the field. He then discusses some recent progress using simple algebraic geometry to study configurations of lines. The moral of this work is that a set of lines with a lot of combinatorial structure must also have algebraic structure — it must be well modeled by low-degree polynomials. \nLarry Guth is a geometer with outstanding contributions to Riemannian geometry\, symplectic geometry and combinatorial geometry. In Riemannian geometry\, he solved a long-standing problem concerning sharp estimates for volumes of k-cycles. In symplectic geometry\, he disproved a conjecture concerning higher-dimensional symplectic invariants by constructing ingenious counterexamples. In combinatorial geometry\, he adopted a recent proof of the finite field analog of the Kakeya problem to the Euclidean context. He and Bourgain established the best current bounds to the restriction problem. Extending this work\, he and Katz essentially solved one of the most well-known problems in incidence geometry\, Erdös’ distinct distance problem\, which was formulated in the 1940s. \nAndrea Liu\nSimons Fellow in Physics\nUniversity of Pennsylvania \nJamming: The Anticrystal\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nWhen we first learn the physics of solids\, we are taught the theory of perfect crystals. It is only emphasized later that in the real world\, all solids are imperfect. The perfect crystal is an invaluable abstraction because we can describe many real solids in terms of perturbations (i.e.\, defects) about this extreme limit. But such an approach fails to describe a glass\, another ubiquitous form of rigid matter. Professor Liu argues that in many senses the jammed solid constitutes an extreme limit that is an opposite pole to perfect order. Like the perfect crystal\, it is an abstraction that can be understood in depth and used as a starting point for understanding the mechanical properties of solids with surprisingly high amounts of order. \nAndrea Liu is a theoretical physicist who studies mechanical phenomena in disordered solids and in living matter. Her research has been instrumental in the development of the field of jamming\, a new way of looking at the origin and nature of rigidity in disordered solids. She discovered the jamming transition\, a critical phase transition that marks the onset of rigidity in disordered packings. She has also resolved a longstanding question of how disordered solids flow by identifying ‘flow defects\,’ or regions that are vulnerable to local rearrangement\, analogous to dislocations in crystals. \nEliot Quataert\nSimons Investigator in Physics\nUniversity of California\, Berkeley \nBlack Hole Astrophysics\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nIn this talk\, Professor Quataert summarizes some of the key questions and outstanding problems in black hole astrophysics. Black holes play a central role in many areas of modern physics and astrophysics. Observations of plasma around the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way provide one of the best opportunities for quantitatively testing general relativity’s strong field gravity predictions. The challenge lies in overcoming our poor understanding of the physics of dilute astrophysical plasmas. Further afield\, accretion of plasma onto black holes produces the most luminous sources of radiation in the universe. The prodigious radiation and outflows produced by these accreting black holes in turn have a surprisingly large impact on the formation of galaxies and large-scale structure. The formation of black holes by the collisions of two neutron stars may power enigmatic gamma-ray bursts and produce neutron-rich heavy elements we take for granted\, such as gold and platinum. \nEliot Quataert is a theoretical astrophysicist whose research combines many areas of physics\, including gas dynamics\, plasma physics\, radiative transfer and nuclear physics. He is also known as a particularly effective mentor of students and postdocs. He has made fundamental contributions to the theory of astrophysical turbulence and transport properties in hot plasmas\, as well as to stellar and black-hole astrophysics. \nScott Sheffield\nSimons Fellow in Mathematics\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology \nChinese Dragons and Mating Trees\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nWhat is the right way to think of a ‘random surface’ or a ‘random planar graph’? How can one explain the dendritic patterns that appear in snowflakes\, coral reefs\, lightning bolts and other physical systems\, as well as in toy mathematical models inspired by these systems? How are these questions related to random walks and random fractal curves\, such as the famous Schramm–Loewner evolution (SLE) curves? How are they related to conformal matings of Julia sets? To string theory? To statistical mechanics? \nTo begin to address these questions\, Prof. Sheffield introduces and explains the ‘quantum Loewner evolution’ (QLE)\, which is a family of growth processes closely related to SLE. This work is performed in collaboration with Jason Miller. \nScott Sheffield examines conformal invariant objects which arise in the study of two-dimensional statistical physics models. He studies the Schramm–Loewner evolution SLE(K) and its relations to a variety of other random objects. For example\, he proved that SLE describes the interface between two Liouville quantum gravity surfaces that have been conformally welded together. In joint work with Oded Schramm\, he showed that contour lines of the Gaussian free field are related to SLE(4). With Jason Miller\, he developed the theory of Gaussian free field flow lines\, which include SLE(K) for all values of K\, as well as many variants of SLE. \nSheffield and Bertrand Duplantier proved the Knizhnik-Polyakov-Zamolodchikov (KPZ) relation for fractal scaling dimensions in Liouville quantum gravity. Sheffield also defined the conformal loop ensembles\, which serve as scaling limits of the collection of all interfaces in various statistical physics models. In joint work with Wendelin Werner\, he described the conformal loop ensembles as the outer boundaries of clusters of Brownian loops. \nIn addition to these contributions\, Sheffield has also proved results regarding internal diffusion limited aggregation\, dimers\, game theory\, partial differential equations and Lipschitz extension theory. \nPaul François\nSimons Investigator in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems\nMcGill University \nIn Silico Evolution and Application to Immune Recognition\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nDespite recent advances in systems biology\, it is unclear how specific dynamical properties (the phenotype) emerge from the complexity of biochemical interactions. Professor François describes an inverse-problem approach using computational evolution to reconstruct simplified networks performing a predefined biological function. He illustrates the predictive aspect of this approach on the problem of immune detection\, which led to the discovery of a general mechanism of ‘adaptive sorting.’ An instance of this module is present in mammalian T-cell biochemical networks. Analytical study of this motif unifies several puzzling properties of immune recognition\, such as ligand antagonism and non-monotonic response time of immune response as a function of ligand concentration.\n\nPaul François is known for his work on physical aspects of embryonic development\, in particular his analysis of the mechanisms underlying embryonic patterning\, for example\, the role of genetic oscillators in the development of vertebrae. \nAssaf Naor\nSimons Collaboration on Algorithms and Geometry\nPrinceton University \nDoubling Metric Spaces and Embeddings\n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nMetric spaces are abstract geometries that are ubiquitous in mathematics and the sciences in general. It is natural to try to understand such abstract structures by realizing them as subsets of well-understood geometries\, such as (possibly highdimensional) Euclidean spaces. Such realizations should faithfully represent pairwise distances if they are to be useful. A metric space X admits a bi-Lipschitz embedding into a metric space Y if there exists D>0 such that one can assign to each point in X a point in Y so that for every two points in X\, the distance in Y between the points that were assigned to them is within a factor of D of their initial distance in X. Among the most basic and longest-standing open problems in this area is to characterize those metric spaces X that admit a bi-Lipschitz embedding into some finite dimensional Euclidean space. This talk starts by discussing this question as well as a classical theorem of Assouad that “nearly misses” its complete resolution. This theorem focuses our attention on the doubling condition for metric spaces\, which requires that every ball is contained in the union of boundedly many balls of half its radius (with the bound independent of the center or the radius of the ball in question). Understanding why Assouad’s theorem cannot fully resolve the above question leads to intriguing developments in metric geometry\, with impact on theoretical computer science through links to dimensionality reduction and approximation algorithms for graph partitioning. In this talk\, Prof. Naor explains these developments and present important questions that remain open. \nAssaf Naor’s research focuses on analysis and geometry\, as well as their interactions with approximation algorithms and computational complexity. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/2014-mps-annual-meeting/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/12031949/Williams_1-640.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141022T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141022T180000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20170428T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163147Z UID:458-1413997200-1414000800@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Numerical Quantum Simulations of Realistic Materials DESCRIPTION:Simulating quantum mechanics on classical computers appears at first to require exponential computational resources\, yet at the same time rapid progress is being made in accurate simulations of the quantum properties of realistic materials. How is this discrepancy resolved? Professor Chan will explain why\, for many purposes\, the exponential complexity of quantum mechanics is an illusion\, and how the simple structure of quantum states can be captured through different mathematical formalisms\, including that of tensor networks. Chan will then briefly discuss how this translates into new tools of numerical simulation\, and highlight applications to the first-principles study of biological systems\, molecular crystals and high temperature superconductivity. \n• View/download slides (PDF)\nGarnet K.-L. Chan is currently the Hepburn Professor of Theoretical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry\, Princeton University. He is also an associated faculty member of the Physics Department\, and a faculty fellow of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. Prior to his appointment at Princeton\, he was an associate professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. He has received a number of awards\, including the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry\, the Medal of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science\, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award\, the Alfred P. Sloan and David and Lucile Packard fellowships\, the NSF CAREER Award\, and the Baker Award of the National Academy of Sciences. \nHis research lies at the interface of theoretical chemistry\, condensed matter physics and quantum information theory\, and is concerned with the phenomena and numerical methods associated with quantum many particle systems. Some current systems of interest include metalloenzymes and biological catalysts\, transition metal oxides and superconductivity\, and organic molecular crystals and light harvesting. He has contributed to a wide range of quantum simulation methods\, including density matrix renormalization and tensor network algorithms for real materials\, downfolding through canonical transformations\, local quantum chemistry methods\, quantum embeddings including dynamical mean-field theory and density matrix embedding theory\, and new quantum Monte Carlo techniques. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/numerical-quantum-simulations-of-realistic-materials/ CATEGORIES:Simons Science Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10181150/Garnet_Chan_200x200_crop.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141008T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141008T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163134Z UID:266-1412784900-1412793900@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Urban Social Science Au Naturel DESCRIPTION:The enormous amount of information that is now available about cities and the people who live in them offers intriguing opportunities for better understanding human behavior. That understanding can be applied to optimize urban policy and operations. Steven Koonin will discuss examples of and prospects for gaining insight into human behavior within the context of work at New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress. \nSteven E. Koonin was appointed founding director of New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress in April 2012. That consortium of academic\, corporate and government partners pursues research and educational activities to develop and demonstrate informatics technologies for urban problems in the ‘living laboratory’ of New York City. He previously served as the U.S. Department of Energy’s second Senate-confirmed under secretary for science. As chief scientist at BP\, Koonin developed a long-range technology strategy for alternative and renewable energy sources. \nKoonin joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1975\, was a research fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute from 1976 to 1977\, and was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellow from 1977 to 1979. He became professor of theoretical physics at Caltech in 1981 and served as chairman of the faculty from 1989 to 1991. From 1995 to 2004\, Koonin was the seventh provost of Caltech. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/urban-social-science-au-naturel/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Data Analysis in the Social Sciences ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180802/Koonin.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20141001T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20141001T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163125Z UID:257-1412180100-1412189100@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Testing the Cortical Column Conjecture DESCRIPTION:Many contemporary theories of neural information processing suggest that the neocortex employs algorithms composed of repeated instances of a limited set of computing primitives. There is a recognized need for tools that interrogate the structure of the cortical microcircuits believed to embody these primitives. The cortical column conjecture suggests that neurons in the neocortex are connected in a graph that exhibits motifs representing repeated processing modules. Carey Priebe and his collaborators will present a notional demonstration of how statistical inference on graphs can inform our understanding of cortical computing. \nBy modeling the cortical graph as a hierarchical stochastic block model (HSBM)\, with induced subgraphs\, which are themselves independent stochastic block models\, a natural question is to estimate the extent to which identified subgraphs share common structure. This will require addressing the problem of identifying candidate subgraphs\, and of determining the impact of imperfect subgraph identification on subsequent inference. The application of this connectomics theory and the associated methods will be demonstrated via a bio-inspired\, large-scale simulation study. \nCarey E. Priebe received a B.S. in mathematics from Purdue University in Indiana\, an M.S. in computer science from San Diego State University\, and a Ph.D. in information technology (computational statistics) from George Mason University in Washington\, D.C. He worked as a mathematician and scientist in the U.S. Navy research and development laboratory system until he became a professor in the department of applied mathematics and statistics at the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. At Johns Hopkins\, Priebe holds joint appointments in the department of computer science\, the department of electrical and computer engineering\, the Center for Imaging Science\, the Human Language Technology Center of Excellence and the Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute. \nHis research interests include computational statistics\, kernel and mixture estimates\, statistical pattern recognition\, statistical image analysis\, dimensionality reduction\, model selection and statistical inference for high-dimensional and graph data. Priebe is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers\, a lifetime member of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics\, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and a fellow of the American Statistical Association. He received an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 1995\, the 2010 American Statistical Association Distinguished Achievement Award\, the 2011 McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising\, and in 2008 was named one of six inaugural National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/testing-the-cortical-column-conjecture/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Frontiers of Data Science ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180752/Priebe.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140923T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140923T184500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163112Z UID:253-1411488900-1411497900@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:The Social Brain: A Hypothesis Space for Understanding Autism DESCRIPTION:Humans are a highly social species\, allocating numerous brain regions to distinct aspects of social cognition. These regions and corresponding mental abilities serve as tools for understanding which functions are lost and which are preserved in autism. \nAutism is characterized by a highly uneven cognitive profile in which some mental functions are preserved or enhanced\, whereas others are disrupted. An important asset in the search to understand this complex disorder comes from the study of the typical human mind and brain. Behavioral\, developmental and neural data from control subjects support a modular architecture\, with distinct cognitive functions implemented in distinct cognitive and neural mechanisms. In this talk\, Nancy Kanwisher will consider the functional architecture of the social brain in typical subjects as an avenue for considering which functions are affected and which are preserved in autism. \nNancy Kanwisher is a professor in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an investigator at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. After receiving her B.S. and Ph.D. from MIT\, Kanwisher served on the faculty at the University of California\, Los Angeles\, and Harvard\, before returning to MIT in 1997. Kanwisher has received the Troland Research Award\, MacVicar Faculty Fellow teaching award and Golden Brain Award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/the-social-brain-a-hypothesis-space-for-understanding-autism/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Autism: Emerging Concepts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180747/nancy-kanwisher-feature.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140917T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140917T180000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20170428T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163102Z UID:456-1410973200-1410976800@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Strategies to Prolong Vision in Inherited Forms of Blindness DESCRIPTION:Photoreceptor cells are a highly specialized cell type in the eye. They capture light and transform the light signals into chemical signals that are delivered to other types of neurons in the eye. Vision is thus initiated by photoreceptors and relies completely upon proper photoreceptor survival. In many inherited diseases that lead to blindness\, the disease gene directly affects photoreceptor cells. One such disease\, retinitis pigmentosa (RP)\, has disease genes that directly affect rods\, the photoreceptor type that mediates vision in dim light. People born with RP are thus night blind. Subsequent to rod dysfunction and death\, the cone photoreceptors\, which mediate color and daylight vision\, also lose function and die. We have suggested a model wherein cones are affected due to dysregulated metabolism\, which occurs after rods die. Cones do not express most RP disease genes\, but they do experience a greatly altered environment following rod death. The outer segments of the cone collapse lose their intimate association with their support cells and are exposed to a hyperoxic environment. We have begun to develop gene therapy to combat some of these problems. Our approach is to use adenovirus-associated vectors (AAV) to deliver genes that help cones fight oxidation and other forms of stress. Our progress in treating RP mice using such vectors will be presented. \n• View/Download Slides (PDF)\nDr. Cepko is the Bullard Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She received her Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\, working with Phillip Sharp\, and remained at MIT as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Richard Mulligan\, where she helped develop the technology of retrovirus-mediated gene transduction. Her current research is focused on the development of the central nervous system\, with an emphasis on the retina. Her laboratory has also been working to develop gene therapy for prolonging vision in genetic forms of blindness\, and in developing viral vectors for tracing neuronal circuitry. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/strategies-to-prolong-vision-in-inherited-forms-of-blindness/ CATEGORIES:Simons Science Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10181147/Connie_Cepko.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140912T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140912T173000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163030Z UID:263-1410525000-1410543000@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Complex Data Visualization: Approach and Application DESCRIPTION:This Biotech Symposium will focus on the visualization and representation of analytic results from complex data sets. Dropping costs of DNA sequencing coupled with the development of various sequencing modalities are driving the generation of large\, complex genomics datasets. In addition\, longitudinal sampling and the pairing of genomics data with real-time data collection from wearable devices promise to increase the complexity of analyses. In this context\, visualization techniques are likely to play a crucial role in making results understandable. \n  \nSpeakers: \nÇağatay Demiralp\, Ph.D.\nStanford University\nVisualize First\, Ask Questions Later: How to Explore Thousands of Genomic Sequences Interactively \n \nNils Gehlenborg\, Ph.D.\nHarvard Medical School\nVisual Exploration of Clinical and Genomic Data for Patient Stratification \n \nCydney Nielsen\, Ph.D.\nBritish Columbia Cancer agency\nVisualizing Cancer Genomes: Techniques and Challenges \n(Video forthcoming) \nNikolaus Schultz\, Ph.D.\nMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center\nThe cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/complex-data-visualization-approach-and-application/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Biotech Symposia END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140910T161500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140910T181500 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140819T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163257Z UID:264-1410365700-1410372900@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Living with Uncertainty but Still Learning: Anti-Abortion Democrats\, Jimmy Carter Republicans and the Missing Leap Day Babies DESCRIPTION:To learn about the human world\, we should accept uncertainty and embrace variation. Andrew Gelman will illustrate this concept with various examples from his recent research and discuss more generally how statistical methods can help or hinder the scientific process. \nAndrew Gelman received his Ph.D. in statistics from Harvard University in 1990. His books include Bayesian Data Analysis; Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks; A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences; and Red State\, Blue State\, Rich State\, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do. He is currently professor of statistics and political science\, as well as director of the Applied Statistics Center\, at Columbia University. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/living-with-uncertainty-but-still-learning-anti-abortion-democrats-jimmy-carter-republicans-and-the-missing-leap-day-babies/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Data Analysis in the Social Sciences ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180759/Gelman.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140904T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140905T170000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20190508T204940Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T171544Z UID:49273-1409817600-1409936400@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Simons Collaboration on the Many Electron Problem Annual Meeting 2014 DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-the-many-electron-problem-annual-meeting-2014/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140710T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140710T170000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140710T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163248Z UID:212-1404979200-1405011600@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:November 6\, 2013: Infants’ Grasp of Others’ Intentions: The Development of Social Understanding DESCRIPTION: URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/november-6-2013-infants-grasp-of-others-intentions-the-development-of-social-understanding/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140530T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140530T000000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140501T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T170925Z UID:3638-1401408000-1401408000@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Symposium on Evidence in the Natural Sciences DESCRIPTION:FRIDAY\, MAY 30\, 2014\nScientific Program: 8:00 AM – 3:15 PM\nEvening Program: 4:30 – 7:45 PM \nGerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\n160 5th Avenue\, New York\, New York\, 10010 \n\nWhat is the difference between evidence\, fact\, and proof? Can we quantify evidence; is something more evident than something else? What does it take to convince a scientist\, a scientific community\, and the general public of the correctness of a scientific result in the era of very complicated experiments\, big data\, and weak signals? \nThis symposium\, co-hosted by the Simons Foundation and John Templeton Foundation and in collaboration with the World Science Festival\, addressed these and related questions\, during a scientific program suited for for established researchers\, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students working in the natural sciences and allied fields\, and during an evening program aimed at the above scientists in addition to the well-informed general public. \nSee the foundation news feature on the symposium for further information and photographs.\nSPEAKERS\n\nJim Baggott\, Science Writer\nCharles Bennett\, IBM Research\nDavid Donoho\, Stanford University\nPeter Galison\, Harvard University\nBrian Greene\, Columbia University\nThomas Hales\, Pittsburgh University\nTim Maudlin\, New York University\nAmber Miller\, Columbia University\nWilliam Press\, University of Texas at Austin \n\nAGENDA\n\nDownload Agenda PDF \n\n\n\n \n\n\nEvidence in the Natural Sciences\nFriday\, May 30\, 2014\n\n\n8:00 – 9.00 AM\nBreakfast & Check-in\n\n\n9:00 – 9:05 AM\nWelcome & Introduction\nYuri Tschinkel\nSimons Foundation\nVladimir Buzek\nTempleton Foundation\n\n\n9:05 – 9:45 AM\nThe Verification of the Proof of the Kepler Conjecture\nThomas Hales\nPittsburgh University\n\n\n9:45 – 10:25 AM\nCan We Believe Our Published Research? Systemic Failures\, Their Causes\, a Solution\nDavid Donoho\nStanford University\n\n\n10:25 – 10:55 AM\nBreak\n\n\n\n10:55 – 11:35 AM\nReproducibility Now at Risk?\nWilliam Press\nThe University of Texas at Austin\n\n\n11:35 AM -12:15 PM\nHow Can We Know What Happened Almost 14 Billion Years Ago?\nAmber Miller\nColumbia University\n\n\n12:15 – 12:55 PM\nEvidence\, Computation\, and Ethics\nCharles Bennett\nIBM Research\n\n\n12:55 – 1:55 PM\nLunch\n\n\n\n1:55 – 2:35 PM\nNew Evidence\nPeter Galison\nHarvard University\n\n\n2:35 – 3:15 PM\nEvidence and Theory in Physics\nTim Maudlin\nNew York University\n\n\n4:30 – 5:15 PM\nTea\n\n\n5:15 – 6:45 PM\nPanel Discussion\nBrian Greene\, Columbia University\nPeter Galison\, Harvard University\nJim Baggott\, Science Writer\n\n\n6:45 – 7:45 PM\nReception\n\n\n\n\n\nTALKS\n\nDownload PDF file of the abstracts below \nPanel Discussion\nBrian Greene\, Columbia University\nPeter Galison\, Harvard University\nJim Baggott\, Science Writer \n \nThe Verification of the Proof of the Kepler Conjecture\nThomas Hales\, Pittsburgh University \n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nIn 1998\, Sam Ferguson and Tom Hales announced the proof of a 400-year-old conjecture made by Kepler. The Kepler conjecture asserts that the most efficient arrangement of balls in space is the familiar pyramid arrangement used to stack oranges at markets. \nTheir mathematical proof relies heavily on long computer calculations. Checking this proof turned out to be a particular challenge for referees. The verification of the correctness of this single proof has now continued for more than 15 years and is still unfinished at the formal level. This long process has fortified standards of computer-assisted mathematical proofs. \nCan We Believe Our Published Research? Systemic Failures\, Their Causes\, a Solution\nDavid Donoho\, Stanford University \n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nStatistical evidence has served as a central component of the scientific method for centuries. The proper calculation and interpretation of statistical evidence is now crucial for interpretation of the one million or more research articles published yearly that purport to discover new effects by data analysis. \nTraditional practices\, which aligned nicely with rigorous statistical analysis\, are slipping away. One of these was the idea of defining\, in advance of any data gathering\, the entire pipeline of data processing and analysis\, so the data itself would not affect its own analysis\, and theoretical assumptions would hold. Another was the idea of carefully describing post facto the full set of analyses that led to a conclusion\, including dead ends and reports left in the file drawer. \nA great deal of mischief can be\, and has been\, unloosed by the spread of less rigorous practices\, traceable ultimately to the ease with which data and analyses can be ‘tweaked.’ John Ioannidis suggests that half or more of all published research findings are false. \nIn this talk\, we reviewed some of the validity problems becoming evident in the combined corpus of scientific knowledge at a global scale and how this is detected. \nReproducibility Now at Risk?\nWilliam H. Press\, The University of Texas at Austin \n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nThe reproducibility of experimental results is a central tenet of science\, related to equally central notions of causality. Yet irreproducibility occurs all the time in the scientific enterprise\, ranging in cause from the fundamentally statistical nature of quantum mechanics and chaotic classical systems to the long list of human fallibilities that can cause experiments to go bad or even mathematical proofs to contain obscure flaws. It has recently been alleged that biomedical experiments are becoming less reproducible\, to the point of stymieing new cancer drug development. Are researchers today just sloppier\, or is there a more fundamental explanation? What should we do about it? \nHow Can We Know What Happened Almost 14 Billion Years Ago?\nAmber Miller\, Columbia University \n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nHow do we go about uncovering the history of the universe\, and what evidentiary standards are required in order to leap the bar from theoretical idea to established scientific framework? Of particular importance in this field is the distinction between a model simply capable of explaining observed phenomena\, and one with the power to generate unique and testable predictions. However\, the application of properly predictive modeling in the theoretical framework is only one side of the coin. Equally important is the rigor with which the experimental investigations are conducted. Perhaps counter-intuitively to those working outside the field\, there are powerful sociological forces at work in the cosmological community that play a constructive role in ensuring this intellectual rigor. \nIn this talk\, Professor Miller discussed the manner and degree to which this affects the debate. \nEvidence\, Computation\, and Ethics\nCharles Bennett\, IBM Research \n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nOur world contains abundant evidence of a nontrivial past\, and archaeological artifacts are deemed valuable according to how much of this long history they contain evidence of\, evidence that cannot be found elsewhere. Nevertheless some important aspects of the past\, like the lost literature of antiquity and the fate of Jimmy Hoffa\, have resisted discovery for a long time\, and there is reason to believe that some of this information has been irretrievably lost\, so by now it is as objectively ambiguous as the most indeterminate aspects of the future\, e.g.\, which of two radioactive atoms will decay first. Notions of evidence and history can be formalized by a modern version of the old idea of a monkey accidentally typing Shakespeare. A modern monkey boosts its chances by typing at a general-purpose computer instead of a typewriter. The behavior of such a randomly programed computer turns out to be a rather subtle mathematical question\, whose answer contains the seeds of a non-anthropocentric ethics\, in which objects (such as a book\, a DNA sequence\, or the whole biosphere)\, are deemed valuable and worthy of preservation if they contain internal evidence\, unavailable elsewhere\, of a nontrivial causal history requiring a long time for a computer to recapitulate. \nNew Evidence\nPeter Galison\, Harvard University \n \nPerhaps the greatest lesson that the history of physics can offer us is this: the development of science is not just about the discovery of new theories and phenomena; it is about the creation of novel forms of evidence and argument. Statistical inference\, error bars\, golden events — along with argument by diagrams\, symmetry\, simulation\, and Gedankenexperiment — these and other forms of evidence are so much a part of our armamentarium that it is easy to think they are part of the eternal firmament of physics. But they\, like the objects and laws they helped establish\, are very much the product of hard-fought battles in the development of the discipline. And the evolution of the very form of our evidence is a sign of the dynamic\, changing nature of physics itself. \nEvidence and Theory in Physics\nTim Maudlin\, New York University \n \nView/Download Slides (pdf)\nAs an empirical science\, physics must imply some testable predictions. And since physics proposes to offer a complete description of the physical world\, those empirical consequences must follow from the theory all by itself. The main interpretational problem of quantum theory (the measurement problem or Schrödinger cat problem) arises exactly because it is unclear how to connect in a principled way the language of the theory to the language of the empirical data. John Bell offered a solution to this problem\, which he called the “theory of local beables.” Professor Maudlin discussed Bell’s general solution\, and a few of the exact detailed forms it might take. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/symposium-on-evidence-in-the-natural-sciences/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/12031745/kepler5_258x216.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20140528T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20140528T183000 DTSTAMP:20260409T092315 CREATED:20140508T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211207T163233Z UID:208-1401294600-1401301800@www.simonsfoundation.org SUMMARY:Keeping Your Brain in Balance: Do Defects in Neuronal Homeostasis Contribute to Autism Spectrum Disorders? DESCRIPTION:May 28\, 2014\, 4:30-6:30 p.m. EST\nGerald D. Fischbach Auditorium at the Simons Foundation\n160 Fifth Avenue\, New York\, NY \nIn this lecture\, Gina Turrigiano will describe the plasticity mechanisms that allow our brains to ‘tune themselves up’ and remain both plastic and stable. These mechanisms include a family of ‘homeostatic’ plasticity mechanisms that allow neurons to adjust their excitability to maintain constant firing rates in the face of outside perturbations. Recently\, Turrigiano has investigated the role of homeostatic plasticity in the experience-dependent development of the visual cortex\, especially how homeostatic mechanisms interact with classical forms of synaptic plasticity to allow experience-dependent circuit refinement. A major goal of Turrigiano’s lab is to determine the molecular and biophysical mechanisms of homeostatic plasticity and use this knowledge to perturb these mechanisms in intact cortex. These studies are generating insights into the normal function of cortical microcircuits and into how the failure of homeostatic plasticity mechanisms might contribute to developmental defects in brain wiring that contribute to autism spectrum disorders. \nGina Turrigiano received her her Ph.D. from the University of California\, San Diego. She trained as a postdoc with Eve Marder at Brandeis University before joining the Brandeis faculty in 1994. She is now a full professor in the department of biology\, the Volen Center for Complex Systems and the Center for Behavioral Genomics at Brandeis. \nTurrigiano has received numerous awards for her research\, including a National Institutes of Health (NIH) career development award\, a Sloan Foundation fellowship\, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship\, McKnight Foundation Technological Innovation and Neurobiology of Disease awards\, an NIH director’s pioneer award\, the HFSP Nakasone Award\, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and election to the National Academy of Sciences. Her scientific interests include mechanisms of synaptic and intrinsic plasticity and the experience-dependent refinement of neocortical microcircuitry. URL:https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/keeping-your-brain-in-balance-do-defects-in-neuronal-homeostasis-contribute-to-autism-spectrum-disorders/ LOCATION:Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium\, 160 5th Avenue\, New York\, NY\, 10010\, United States CATEGORIES:Autism: Emerging Concepts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://sf-web-assets-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/10180702/Turrigiano1-pic-copy1.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR