Robert M. Fossum
Arthur Jaffe
Harvard University
professor Arthur Jaffe, one of the world's top scholars in the field of
mathematical physics, is this year's speaker for the Robert and Robin Fossum
Distinguished Lecture Series. Jaffe will speak this Friday, May 2, in the
Beckman Institute auditorium.
Jaffe is the Landon T. Clay
Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science at Harvard, as well as past
President of American Mathematical Society, Fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jaffe's talk is titled "The
Unreasonable Effectiveness of Physics in Mathematics" and is summarized in this
way: The intimate relations between physics and mathematics go back to the
Greeks and before. In 1960 physicist Eugene Wigner marveled at the "Unreasonable
Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences." Today the tables seem to
have turned, with ideas from physics providing effective guideposts throughout
mathematics. We recount part of the story of this amazing evolution.
According to his faculty Web page
at Harvard, "Jaffe's major scientific work has been in the realm of
understanding quantum theory and the mathematics that it inspires. Jaffe solved
a fundamental question by showing the compatibility of special relativity,
quantum theory, and interactions. With J. Glimm he constructed the first
mathematically-complete and non-trivial examples of relativistic quantum field
theories. Recently Jaffe's research has focused on the relation between
super-symmetry and a new mathematical subject - non-commutative geometry -
where one builds quantum space into the notion of space-time."
Jaffe's talk will be at 4 p.m. in
the Beckman auditorium.
The Robert and Robin Fossum Distinguished
Lecture Series is funded by Beckman Institute and Mathematics Department
faculty member Robert Fossum and his wife Robin. It is an annual presentation featuring
leading scientists from academics and business from a variety of fields.
This year's lecture coincides with Robert Fossum's retirement after serving for 44 years as a faculty member in the Department of
Mathematics at the University
of Illinois. The lecture
will be followed by a "roast" of Fossum and a reception in the Beckman atrium.