Simons Foundation Lectures

Mathematics and Computer Science: Waves

The theme of the 2023 lecture series in mathematics and computer science is “Waves.” The equations that describe waves are crucial tools for understanding everything from how sound propagates to the behavior of quantum particles. This set of talks will explore the richness of the wave equation and its non-linear extensions in general relativity, particle physics, hydrodynamics, optics, quantum mechanics and electrodynamics.

Past Lectures

May31

How Do Waves Propagate Randomness?

Andrea R. Nahmod
Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Within the international research community, Andrea R. Nahmod is one of the most visible members of UMass Amherst’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics. A native of Argentina, she works in nonlinear analysis and partial differential equations, a subfield of pure mathematics, but has also collaborated with applied mathematicians.

“I’m an analyst,” Nahmod says. “I study how to decompose objects in forms we can understand and that give us information about their most relevant features, their structure and patterns.” Using harmonic and nonlinear Fourier analysis, Nahmod applies these decomposition techniques to problems in the material world in order to find solutions and to understand their behavior.
Nahmod was named Professeur Invité at Université Paris-Sud 11, Orsay, and was a visiting scholar at the Courant Institute, New York University. She was awarded a Radcliffe-Sargent Faull Fellowship at Harvard University and has been twice selected a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Nahmod's research has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation. She delivered an Invited Plenary Address at the American Mathematical Society in 2006 and was keynote speaker at the Tenth New Mexico Analysis conference in 2007, the 16th Riviere-Fabes Symposium on Analysis and PDE in 2013, and the 33th SEARCDE Conference in 2014. She frequently speaks at major research conferences in the U.S. and overseas, including the Oberwolfach Institute of Mathematics in Germany in 2013, the NSF-CBMS Regional Research Conference in 2013, the Banff International Research Station in Canada in 2014, and the International Conference on Recent Progress and Future Directions at the University of Chicago in 2014.

Education: BS, University of Buenos Aires, 1985; PhD, Yale University, 1991.

Andrea Nahmod, Ph.D.Professor of Mathematics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Lecture
May 31, 2023

Apr26

Waves Inside Stars: The Beauty and Power of Asteroseismology

Conny Aerts, Ph.D.Professor of Astrophysics, Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven
Professor of Asteroseismology, Department of Astrophysics, Radboud University
External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society

Lecture
April 26, 2023
Watch Video

Mar22

Dark Matter Waves: From the Cosmos to the Lab

Mariangela Lisanti, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist, Cosmology X Data Science, CCA, Flatiron Institute
Associate Professor, Physics, Princeton University

Lecture
March 22, 2023
Watch Video

Feb15

Extreme Control of Light and Sound Waves with Metamaterials

Andrea Alù, Ph.D.Distinguished Professor, City University of New York (CUNY) Einstein Professor of Physics, CUNY Graduate Center,
Founding Director, CUNY Advanced Science Research Center

Lecture
February 15, 2023
Watch Video