The Porcelli Lectures this year will be delivered by Don Zagier, a director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, and a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, France. Preceding each talk, there will be refreshments in the Howe-Russell atrium at 3pm. Everyone in invited.

Lectures

The q of “q-series”

Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 3:40–4:30
Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex E 130

The q of “quadratic”

Thursday, April 24, 2008, 3:40–4:30
Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex E 130

The q of “quantum”

Friday, April 25, 2008, 3:40–4:30
Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex E 134

Abstract

The subject is q-series as they appear in combinatorics—already starting with Euler and Gauss and continuing notably with Ramanujan—but then also in modular forms, topology, and quantum theory, with lots of surprising cross-connections.