MATHEMATICS TALK LIST

Spring 2007

Talk List Information

JANUARY 2007

Monday, January  8, 2007

     MATH TALK

 

 

Time: 2:00-3:00pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hostess: Prof. Rachel Roberts

               

 

 

Speaker: Mr. Brad Henry, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University

 

Title: Moser's method, Gray's Theorem and local control of contact structures on 3-manifolds

 

Abstract: A contact structure on a 3-manifold M is a 2-plane distribution on M that is completely non-integrable, i.e. there is no embedded 2-manifold F in M whose tangent space agrees with the distribution. In other words, a contact structure is very twisted, even locally. We will begin with an introduction to contact structures on 3-manifolds and move into a discussion of one of the most useful tools in this area: Moser's method. Gray's Theorem is an excellent example of the power of Moser's method. If time permits, I will give some indication as to how this method can be used to prove theorems about local neighborhoods of points and nicely embedded knots.

 

This talk is the first hour in a series of lectures and is intended to satisfy my major oral requirement. During the week of Jan 8-12, I will be giving a series of talks on low-dimensional topology. They will concern contact structures on 3-manifolds. The talks will be from 2-4pm on each day of that week in room 199. The times may change slightly on some days, so please let me know if you would like to attend and I will keep you informed of any changes.

 

 

Monday,  January 22, 2007

     ANALYSIS SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:00-5:00pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. John McCarthy

 

 

Speaker: Professor John McCarthy

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: Organizational Meeting

 

 

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

     GRADUATE SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:00-5:00pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Richard Rochberg

 

 

Speaker: Professor Gary Jensen

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: Clifford algebras and Isoparametric hypersurfaces

 

Abstract: A hypersurface of the n-dimensional sphere is called isoparametric if its principal curvatures are all constant. In 1981 Ferus, Karcher, and Muenzner showed how to use an orthogonal representation of a Clifford algebra to construct an isoparametric hypersurface with four distinct prinicipal curvatures. This FKM construction produces a doubly infinite sequence of distinct such hypersurfaces, and accounts for all but two of the known examples. This talk will be an introduction to these concepts and a description of the FKM construction.

 

 

Friday, January 26, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

Speaker: Mr. Ruibin Xi , Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: Aggregated logistic regression in data cubes

 

Abstract: A data cube (Gray et al., 1997) is a multi-dimensional array structure defined based on some features in a multi-dimensional database. We consider the problem of performing logistic regression in any cells of a data cube when the original database is too large to store. While lossless calculation of the ordinary least squares estimates (OLS) can be achieved in linear regression analysis (Chen et al., 2006), such lossless calculations are usually not achievable for more general regression analyses. I will consider logistic regression analysis and propose to approximate the maximum likelihood estimates by aggregate first-order approximations of the estimating equations. Then only derivatives of the estimating equations need to be saved but not the original data. The aggregated estimator is shown to be strongly consistent and a large deviation result is also provided. This idea can easily generalize to all estimating equation estimators. Simulation studies also suggests its computational advantages, which supports its alternative usage to non-data-cube context to gain computational time by partitioning the raw huge dataset into many smaller subsets followed by our aggregation method.

 

 

Monday, January 29, 2007

     ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY  SEMINAR

 

Time: 2:00-3:00pm

Location: Eads Hall, Room 215
Host: Prof. N. Mohan Kumar

 

Speaker: Professor Ualbai Umirbaev

Department of Mathematics, Eurasian National University (Kazakhstan)

 

Title: Generators and defining relations for automorphism groups of polynomial and free algebras.

 

Abstract:  It is well-known that the automorphisms of polynomial algebras (Jung, 1942; van der Kulk, 1953) and free associative algebras (Makar-Limanov, 1970; Czerniakiewicz, 1971-1972) in two variables are tame. This talk concerns the last results in this area:

 

1) The well-known Nagata automorphism of the polynomial algebra in three variables is wild, that is, it can not be decomposed into a product of elementary automorphisms (Shestakov, Umirbaev);

 

2) Defining relations of the tame integral Cremona group in three variables (Umirbaev);

 

3) The well-known Anick automorphism of the free associative algebra in three variables is wild (Umirbaev).

 

 

 

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

     GRADUATE SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:00-5:00pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Richard Rochberg

 

 

Speaker: Professor M. Victor Wickerhauser

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: Translation invariant discrete wavelet transforms

 

Abstract: At a cost of O(log N) extra space and time per coefficient in the N-dimensional case, the invertible discrete wavelet transform can be made translation invariant.  We will examine several implementations of this idea and discuss their applications, advantages and disadvantages.

 

 

FEBRUARY 2007

Friday, February 2, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

Speaker: Dr. Anton Westveld

Department of Political Science, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: Statistical Methodology for Longitudinal Social Network Data

Abstract: Social interaction data are data that are generated from the interaction or relationship between two or more actors, thus the observational units are pairs, trios, etc. of actors.  This type of data are common in all fields of social science (e.g. political science, sociology, anthropology, and economics) for the interaction of actors is a key element in social science theory.  In this talk, I  focus on data that arise from measurements made on pairs (dyadic  data) of actors, where every ordered pair is observed at regular  temporal intervals resulting in a social network for each point in  time (longitudinal social network data). Typically social network data are used to study a key social phenomenon, such as trade between nations, in relation to a set of predictor variables while accounting  for and learning about the interconnectivity of the actors.

Standard static social relations models account for five types of  pairwise network dependencies: (1) same sender, (2) same receiver,  (3) same transmitter, (4) observational, and (5) reciprocity.  The first half of the talk extends these dependencies by incorporating a 
time dimension.  The extended dependence structure is modeled through a random effects approach involving a set of stationary stochastic processes.

In the second half of the talk, I apply the methodology to two real world applications: (1) international trade, and (2) militarized interstate disputes.  Afterwards further extensions to the methodology will be discussed.

 

Monday, February 5, 2007

     ANALYSIS SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:00-5:00pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. John McCarthy

 

 

Speaker: Professor John McCarthy

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: How not to prove the Kadison-Singer conjecture

 

 

Thursday, February 8, 2007

     1ST ANNUAL I.I. HIRSCHMAN LECTURE SERIES

 

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. Ed Wilson &

                Prof. Guido Weiss

 

 

Speaker: Professor Richard Askey

Department of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Title: What I learned at Washington University and from I.I. Hirschman and its impact on mathematics research and my teaching

 

Abstract: As a senior at Washington Univ., Hirschman gave me a preprint of a paper of his and suggested I try to extend the results. The paper was on Legendre polynomials, and this led me to learn about extensions of them. At this time the subject of special functions was thought to be dead as a research area, and only of interest in some applied fields if that. Hirschman was right to suggest that there was more to be found. Some of the story of what was found will be mentioned. It starts with a result in a 1938 thesis written at Washington University by a student of Gabor Szego, runs through work of L.J.  Rogers from 1894 to current work on quantum groups. In education, I will tell three stories of my Washington University days which had impacts on my teaching and work in education.

 

 

Friday, February 9, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

 

Time: Tea: 3:00-3:30pm
Colloquium: 3:30-4:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. Ed Wilson &

                Prof. Guido Weiss

 

 

Speaker: Professor Richard Askey

Department of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Title: Mathematical content knowledge of teachers, a view from the past and present

 

Abstract: In his Presidential Address to the American Education Research Association about twenty years ago, Lee Shulman spoke about knowledge of teachers.  He started with content, calling it the forgotten part of education, and illustrated what was expected in the last quarter of the nineteenth century with some questions asked in California in 1875.  The exams he quoted from were primarily for grammar school teachers, but exams for high school teachers also exist.  Some questions from such exams will be given and contrasted with what we now expect.

 

 

Friday, February 9, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Mr. Qing Li, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Thursday, February 15, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. Nik Weaver

 

 

Speaker: Professor Ilijas Farah

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University ( Canada)

 

Title: Rigidity conjectures

 

Abstract: Consider the Boolean algebra P(N) of all sets of natural numbers. If for two ideals of this Boolean algebra there is a permutation of N that sends one ideal to the other, then their quotient algebras are isomorphic. The unrestricted version of the converse is false if, for example, the ideals are allowed to be maximal. For ideals that are Borel in the Cantor-set topology of P(N) consider a strong version of the converse: Every isomorphism has a lifting that is an automorphism of P(N). I have conjectured the following:

 

(1) This is true if the isomorphism has a Borel-measurable representation.

 

(2) Under a specific additional set-theoretic assumption, every isomorphism has a Borel-measurable representation.

 

These two conjectures have been confirmed for virtually all Borel P-ideals occurring in the literature.

 

Techniques developed in this context are relevant to lifting questions for algebraic structures of comparable size and complexity. I'll concentrate on the Calkin algebra, the quotient of B(H), the C*-algebra of bounded linear operators on a separable infinite-dimensional Hilbert space H, by the ideal K(H) of compact operators.

 

 

Friday, February 16, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Ms. Haley Abel, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Thursday, February 22, 2007

     1ST ANNUAL TAIBLESON LECTURE SERIES

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. Ed Wilson &

                Prof. Guido Weiss

 

Speaker: Professor Hrvoje Šikić

Department of Mathematics, Washington University and University of Zagreb (Croatia)

 

Title: Besov spaces on domains and Brownian motion

 

Abstract: Besov spaces form a large class of function spaces and they can be developed on the entire Euclidean space as well as on sub-domains. The development of Besov spaces started in 1959 and it took almost twenty years to include the full range of parameters. An important step was provided in 1964 by M.H.Taibleson, who applied the Hardy-Littlewood method to characterize Besov spaces on Euclidean spaces via the Poisson kernel and the Gauss-Weierstrass kernel.

 

The research on Besov spaces on domains proved to be very challenging, as well, and it is active even today. From recent results on the potential theory of Brownian motion we were inspired to attempt the characterization of a large class of Besov spaces on domains via the kernel of the Brownian motion killed upon exiting the domain. Although we essentially revisited the original Taibleson's method, the proof ended up being demanding with several technical obstacles that do not appear in the original case.

 

This is a joint work with M.H.Taibleson.

 

 

Friday, February 23, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Professor Ed Spitznagel

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

MARCH 2007

 

Thursday, March 1, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. Guido Weiss

 

 

Speaker: Professor Pete Casazza

Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri, Columbia

 

Title: The Kadison-Singer Problem in Mathematics and Engineering

 

Abstract: We will see that the famous intractable 1959 Kadison-Singer Problem in C*-algebras is equivalent to fundamental unsolved problems in a dozen areas of research. We will look at the interesting interconnections this problem presents for pure mathematics, applied mathematics and engineering. We will also see that there are equivalents of the KS problem that any first year graduate student can work on.

 

 

Friday, March 2, 2007

     WAVELET SEMINAR

 

Time:  3:00-4:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. Guido Weiss

 

 

Speaker: Professor Pete Casazza

Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri, Columbia

 

Title: The Cocktail Party Problem

 

Abstract:  The cocktail party problem asks:

We have a tape recording of a group of people talking at a cocktail party.  Can we separate out each individual voice with all of its voice characteristics?

 

Although the cocktail party problem is a problem in engineering, it presents a wide variety of interesting mathematical questions.  We will look at some of the mathematics surrounding the problem and some recent advances on the problem.

 

 

Friday, March 2, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Ms. Xiao Huang, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Thursday, March 8, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Hosts: Prof. John Shareshian

 

Speaker: Professor Louis Billera

Department of Mathematics, Cornell University

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, March 23, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Professor Carol Woods

Department of Psychology, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

     4th ANNUAL LOEB UNDERGRADUATE LECTURE IN MATHEMATICS

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: TBA
Host: Prof. Ron Freiwald

 

Speaker: Professor Karen E. Smith

Department of Mathematics,  University of Michigan

Title: TBA

 

 

Thursday, March 29, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Renato Feres

 

Speaker: Professor Fred Xavier

Department of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, March 30, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

Speaker: Professor Chengjie Xiong

Division of Biostatistics, Washington University, School of Medicine

 

Title: TBA

 

APRIL 2007

Thursday, April 5, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Renato Feres

 

Speaker: Professor Francois Ledrappier

Department of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, April 6, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

Speaker: Ms. Amei, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

Thursday, April 12, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Al Baernstein, II

 

Speaker: Professor Loredana Lanzani

Department of Mathematics University of Arkansas

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, April 13, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 

Time: Tea: 4:00-4:30pm
Colloquium: 4:30-5:30pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Al Baernstein, II

 

Speaker: Professor Luca Capogna

Department of Mathematics University of Arkansas

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, April 13, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Dr. Adam Hafdahl

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, April 20, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

 

Speaker: Mr. Chunlin Fan, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

 

Friday, April 27, 2007

     STATISTICS  SEMINAR

 

 

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. Nan Lin

 

Speaker: Professor Jimin Ding

Department of Mathematics, Washington University in Saint Louis

 

Title: TBA

 

MAY 2007

Friday,  May 11, 2007

     COLLOQUIUM

 


Colloquium: 3:00pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. David Wright

 

 

Speaker: Sir Michael Atiyah

Department of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

 

Title: The role of Quaternions in Algebra, Geometry and  Physics

 

Abstract: 2006 was the bicentenary of the birth of William Rown Hamilton. He made contributions to optics and dynamics which proved fundamental for quantum theory but he himself believed that his greatest achievement was the discovery of quaternions. This is not widely accepted, but I want to argue Hamilton's case by showing how quaternions have influenced large and important parts of mathematics and physics.

 

 

Tea: 4:30pm

     MATH TALK

Talk: 5:00pm
Location: Cupples I, Room 199
Host: Prof. David Wright

 

Speaker: Sir Michael Atiyah

Department of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

 

Title: Beauty and Truth in Mathematics

 

Abstract: Truth in mathematics is closely related to the familiar notion of proof, which distinguishes mathematics from science.  Beauty however is more subtle and not usually associated with an outwardly austere subject like mathematics.  I want to explain what mathematicians mean by beauty and why it is so important to them. I will also examine its relation to truth

 

 



Last Updated 11/24/2010