Mathematics for a better life: Alfio Quarteroni interviewed by Francesca Bonadei

In this month’s podcast, Ilka Agricola, a mathematician at the Phillips-Marburg University in Marburg, Germany, talks about the challenges mathematicians face while producing and using electronic scientific documents for research and teaching, especially in light of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence. She also talks about innovative actions in making mathematical content more accessible for the visually impaired, and shares insights into her journey in academia. Dr. Agricola is hosted by Lynn Brandon, Executive Publisher for Mathematics at Springer.
Photo: "Ilka Agricola (Philipps-Universität Marburg) vor der Universitätsbibliothek" By Thorsten Richter (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

In this episode, Camillo De Lellis, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton, engages in an interview with Nicola Gigli from the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati in Trieste, Italy. They delve into Nicola Gigli's personal journey in and out of mathematics, discussing how he arrived at the topics of his research and his enthusiasm for them. Throughout the conversation, they also explore the intriguing connection between the concepts of optimal transport and curvature of a space, a discovery that has given rise to a flourishing research field at the intersection of multiple areas of mathematics, making it a fascinating and fast-growing frontier of exploration.

Nicola Gigli obtained his PhD from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, specializing in functional and geometric analysis. In recognition of his outstanding achievements in diverse areas of mathematics, he was honored with the Oberwolfach Prize in 2010. Additionally, in 2019, he received the Ennio De Giorgi prize for his remarkable and original contributions to his field of research.

Camillo De Lellis earned his PhD in mathematics from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. His research focuses on calculus of variations, geometric measure theory, and fluid dynamics. Throughout his career, he has received numerous accolades, with the most recent being the Maryam Mirzakhani Prize awarded in the same year, recognizing his exceptional contributions to the mathematical sciences. 

Originally presented by the UNITEXT Springer Nature Webinars series, this interview has been specifically adapted for the podcast format.

The International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, or ICIAM, is known as the largest congress in applied mathematics, held only once every four years. The first ICIAM took place in Paris in 1987; and then in Washington, D.C (1991), Hamburg (1995) and Edinburgh (1999). The next venues were Sydney (2003), Zürich (2007), Vancouver (2011), Beijing (2015), and Valencia (2019). ICIAM 2023 Tokyo is the 10th congress. The number of participants for the recent ICIAM congresses exceeded 3,000, and for ICIAM 2023, more than 4,700 participants have registered including online-only participants.

Have you ever been to Japan? In this episode, two Japanese mathematicians, Ken Hayami and Hisashi Okamoto, share some interesting background information that may enrich your experience at ICIAM 2023 Tokyo.
 
Ken Hayami, born in 1956, obtained his master’s degree in 1981 from the University of Tokyo and began his career as a researcher at the NEC Corporation. He obtained PhD degrees from the Wessex Institute of Technology (1991) and the University of Tokyo (1993), respectively. In 1993, he joined the faculty of the University of Tokyo and later he moved to NII/Sokendai, where he is now professor emeritus. Ken Hayami has been the president of the Japan SIAM since June 2023.

Hisashi Okamoto, born in 1956, obtained his PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1985, supervised by Hiroshi Fujita. He previously held positions at the University of Tokyo and the Research Institute of Mathematics (Kyoto University), and is now at Gakushuin University in Tokyo. He was an invited speaker at the 1998 International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.  Hisashi Okamoto has been the editor-in-chief of the Japan Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics since 2016.

In this episode, our guest is Alessio Figalli, Director of the Institute for Mathematical Research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Professor Figalli completed his Ph.D. at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in Italy and at the École Normale Supérieure of Lyon in France. He has also worked as a researcher at universities in France, the United States, and Switzerland.

His achievements have been recognized with several prizes, including the Fields Medal in 2018 for his contributions to the theory of optimal transport, and the European Mathematical Society Prize in 2012 in recognition of his excellent contributions to mathematics.

In a lively conversation with Luigi Ambrosio, a Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Figalli discusses his early days in mathematics and his unique career path. He also comments on the differences in university systems among countries, how he manages his time with professional, personal, and family duties, the increasing importance of optimal transport in recent years, and his approach to problem-solving in mathematics.

Originally aired by the UNITEXT Springer Nature Webinars series, this interview has been specifically adapted for the podcast format.

In this episode, we have the pleasure of hosting Luigi Ambrosio, a Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, as our guest. Professor Ambrosio, who recently co-authored the new textbook "Lectures on Optimal Transport" with Elia Brué and Daniele Semola, engages in a lively conversation with Alfio Quarteroni, a Professor at Politecnico di Milano. During this special interview, which is hosted by Professor Quarteroni, Professor Ambrosio shares his insights on topics such as optimal transport, the evolution of mathematics in Italy, strategies for motivating young mathematicians, and unsolved problems in his field. Originally aired by the UNITEXT Springer Nature Webinars series, this interview has been specifically adapted for the podcast format.

In this month's podcast, our guest is Jaigyoung Choe, President of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. Professor Choe received his PhD degree from the University of California Berkeley in 1986 under the supervision of Professor Richard Schoen after completing his undergraduate studies at Seoul National University.

His main research interests are in differential geometry, minimal surface theory, isoperimetric problems, and geometric measure theory.

Previously, he held positions at POSTECH in Pohang and Seoul National University. He was a professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study until February 2019 and is now a professor emeritus at the institute. He is also the eighth President of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. Professor Choe is one of the Series Editors of the KIAS Springer Series in Mathematics.

He is hosted by Masayuki Nakamura, Editor for Mathematics in Tokyo.

In this month's podcast, our guest is Catriona Byrne.

Catriona Byrne has French and Scottish origins. She obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and worked for Springer as a Publishing Editor and later as Director for Mathematics until 2022, working with international teams of editors. In that time she held responsibility for many book series, including the flagship Grundlehren and Ergebnisse, and the Lecture Notes in Mathematics, as well as many journals including Inventiones Mathematicae, Mathematische Annalen, Mathematische Zeitschrift, and Probability Theory and Related Fields.

Among other innovations, she initiated the digitisation of the Lecture Notes in Mathematics series, and she launched and developed Springer’s successful programme of books and three journals in mathematical finance from 1998.

She will be hosted by Bernard Teissier.

Bernard Teissier, born 1945, is a French mathematician who has made major contributions to algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, specifically to singularity theory, multiplicity theory and valuation theory. His PhD from the University of Paris VII Denis-Diderot in 1973 was supervised by Heisuke Hironaka. He was a member of Nicolas Bourbaki. He has been a CNRS researcher at the École Polytechnique, the École Normale Supérieure and at Paris Universities. He was an Invited Speaker at the 1983 International Congress of Mathematicians in Warsaw. 

Bernard Teissier has been one of the Editors of Springer’s Lecture Notes in Mathematics series since 1995.

In this month’s podcast, our guest is Yang-Hui He, a Fellow of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, which is based at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, professor of mathematics at City University of London, Chang-Jiang Chair professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, as well as Lecturer at Merton College, University of Oxford.

In this episode, we've invited him to talk about the interactions between mathematics and physics, how the international education and research experience influence a scientist, and the activities carried out at Chern Institute and Nankai University.

Yang-Hui He studied at Princeton University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Physics, with a Certificate in Applied Mathematics and a Certificate in Engineering Summa cum Laude (Highest Honours, Phi-Beta-Kappa). He then obtained a Certificate in Advanced Mathematics (Tripos) at Cambridge University, with Distinction. He went on to receive his PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics from MIT and continued at the University of Pennsylvania before joining Oxford University as a FitzJames Fellow in Mathematics and then UK STFC Advanced Fellow in theoretical physics.

Prof. He is a mathematical physicist working on various interfaces between geometry and theoretical high energy physics. He is particularly interested in aspects of algebraic geometry in application to, and interacting with, gauge theory as well as string theory, such as Calabi-Yau manifolds, holographic correspondences and string phenomenology. He also has interests in the dialogue between number theory, graph representation theory and gauge theories. Yang-Hui He is author of over 200 scientific publications and also a keen communicator of science. With Springer, he published in 2021 The Calabi-Yau Landscape. From Geometry to Physics, to Machine Learning as volume 2293 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics. In late 2022, the Proceedings of the Nankai Symposium on Mathematical Dialogues will appear, a symposium which celebrated the 110th birthday of S.-S. Chern.
 

In this month’s podcast, our guest is Marcelo Viana, researcher and director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, IMPA, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In this episode, we've invited him to talk about the challenges and the opportunities of doing research in mathematics in Latin America, the role of IMPA in the development of mathematical research in the region, and the perspectives of regional and global cooperation.

Marcelo Viana obtained his PhD at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, in 1990, six years after finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Porto, Portugal. His main research interests are in Dynamical Systems and Theory of Chaos. He has received many prizes and distinctions, among them the Ramanujan Prize from the International Center for Theoretical Physics of Trieste, in 2005, and the Grand Prix Scientifique Louis D. from the Academy of Sciences of Paris, France, in 2016. He has supervised over forty PhD students and published over sixty papers and more than ten books. Viana is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the Brazilian Mathematical Society.

He will be hosted by Robinson dos Santos, Editor for Mathematics.

John Horton Conway was one of the most important researchers in the history of mathematics. His genius and boundless curiosity enabled him to make significant  contributions in many diverse areas throughout his lifetime, including number theory, topology, algebra, knot theory, coding theory, and probability. But John Conway was far more than simply a scientific researcher. Through his games, imagination, sense of humor, and willingness to share all that he knew with anyone who would listen, his influence on mathematicians and mathematical enthusiasts alike will no doubt be felt for generations to come.

We have four guests for this episode, hosted by Marc Strauss, Publishing Director in Mathematics:

Siobhan Roberts is a Canadian science journalist who contributes regularly to the New York Times. She is the author of Genius at Play, The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway. She also wrote a biography of the classical geometer Donald Coxeter, titled King of Infinite Space.

Marjorie Senechal is the Louise Wolf Kahn Professor Emerita in Mathematics and History of Science and Technology at Smith College where, in addition to teaching math and history of science, she was the founding director of the Kahn Institute for pan-disciplinary research. Her own research focusses on tilings and crystallography. She is the former editor-in-chief of The Mathematical Intelligencer.

Colin Adams is the Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics at Williams College. He is the author of numerous mathematics research articles on knot theory and low-dimensional topology, humor columnist for The Mathematical Intelligencer, and author or co-author of ten books, including The Knot Book, Zombies & Calculus and Riot at the Calc Exam and Other Mathematically Bent Stories.

Barry Cipra is a freelance mathematics writer based in Northfield, Minnesota. He has been a contributing correspondent for Science magazine and a regular writer for SIAM News. He wrote the first five volumes of What’s Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, and is the author of Misteaks... and How to Find Them Before the Teacher Does: A Calculus Supplement. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

John Conway's book publications with Springer include Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups and The Book of Numbers.