Math & Cultural
| Parent Program: | -- |
|---|---|
| Location: | NYU Courant, Warren Weaver Hall, 251 Mercer Street, Room 109 or Livestream via Zoom |
Special Lecture
NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
Cédric Villani: "The Mathematical Creations of John Nash"
November 30, 2021 at 11:30 AM Eastern Time (8:30 AM Pacific Time)
In-person (subject to NYU campus COVID visitor restrictions): NYU Courant Institute, Warren Weaver Hall Room 109, 251 Mercer Street, New York, NY
Online: Live stream via Zoom (to request the Zoom link, contact communications@msri.org).
Abstract: Nash was a prophet who founded several new chapters of game theory and geometric analysis in just a few revolutionary contributions that seemed to come from nowhere. On 23 May 2015, John Forbes Nash tragically died in a taxi accident, just after receiving the most prestigious award that a mathematician can dream of, the Abel Prize. This tragic episode was the last event in a life which was so full of amazing events that Nash became an icon of human genius, recipient of the Nobel Prize and hero of a Hollywood movie looking at his life marked by mental illness.
Cédric Villani is a French mathematician, trained in École normale supérieure in Paris, currently Professor in University of Lyon. He was a visiting professor in Berkeley, Atlanta and Princeton. A specialist of mathematical analysis applied to the statistical physics of gas and plasmas, as well as non-Euclidean differential geometry, he has received numerous awards including the Fields medal, awarded every four years to at most four mathematicians under 40, often described as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics. Respected for his acclaimed synthesis books, he has received the Doob Prize of the American Mathematical Society, a prize awarded every three years to recognize a book of great novelty and clarity. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, as well as the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 2017 he was elected member of French Parliament, where he champions a number of subjects rooted in science and especially ecology. His report on Artificial Intelligence was the basis of the French Strategy of AI. He presides over the Office parlementaire d'évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques, or French Scientific Parliamentary Office, which studies all kinds of subjects in which a thorough scientific study is compulsory for political action. His broad-audience books have been translated in 15 languages.