University of Miami
Department of Mathematics
Helen Lyttle Kimmel '42 Professor of Mathematics
Barnard College, Columbia University
will present
Symplectic Embeddings and Continued Fractions
Wednesday, February 12th, 2014, 5:30pm
Wilder Auditorium, Knight Physics Building
Reception immediately following the lecture
All interested persons are welcome to attend.
Abstract: A symplectic structure is a rather elusive geometric structure that can be put on an even dimensional space. This talk will discuss some basic properties of this structure, and explain how the elementary number theory of continued fractions is relevant to the question of when one symplectic ellipsoid embeds into another.
Dusa McDuff is the Helen Lyttle Kimmel '42 Professor of Mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University. Professor McDuff is a world leading authority in Symplectic Geometry. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), a member of the American Philosophical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (U.K.). She is the first recipient of the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize, awarded by American Mathematical Society in 1991, and she received the Outstanding Woman Scientist Award from the Association for Women in Science in 1997. She received her Ph.D from Cambridge University and is an honorary fellow of Girton College, Cambridge.
The McKnight-Zame Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible by a generous donation from Dr. Jeffry Fuqua, who received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Miami in 1972 under the direction of Professor James McKnight. This lecture series is named in honor of both Professor McKnight and Professor Alan Zame, who was a close mentor of Dr. Fuqua while he was a student at the University of Miami.
