Virginia Mathematics Lectures
In 2014, the IMS established the Distinguished Lecture Series "Virginia Mathematics Lectures." The inaugural speaker was Professor Alex Lubotzky from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Each semester thereafter brought us another speaker in the series.
These lecture series were enthusiastically met by the audience which included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members and guests from other departments and institutions.
Given the success of the lectures, the IMS will continue to organize two such series every year.
Upcoming and past lectures
Rich Schwartz - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - March 23-25, 2026
Event start date: Monday, March 23, 2026
Rich Schwartz (Brown University)
- Lecture 1 - The Optimal Paper Moebius Band: Monday, March 23, 2026 | 5-6pm | Wilson 402
- Lecture 2 - The Most Efficient Origami Tori: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | 5-6pm | Wilson 402
- Lecture 3 - Universality and Collapsibility in Vertex-Minimal Origami Tori: Wednesday, March 25, 2026 | 5-6pm | Nau 101
Ravi Vakil - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - September 8-10, 2025
Event start date: Monday, September 8, 2025
Ravi Vakil (Stanford University and AMS)
- Lecture 1 - The Mathematics of Doodling: Monday, September 8, 2025 | 5-6pm | Wilson 402
- Lecture 2 - Topology from Algebraic Geometry: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 | 5-6pm | Wilson 402
- Town Hall with the AMS President: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 | 3:30-5pm | Minor 125
Jordan Ellenberg - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - March 4-5, 2025
Event start date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Jordan Ellenberg (University of Wisconsin)
Jordan Ellenberg will deliver the Virginia Mathematics Lectures on March 4-5, 2025.
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Lecture 1: Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 5-6pm, Wilson 402
Three is harder than two
(Abstract is below)
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Lecture 2: Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 5-6pm, Wilson 402
What does machine learning have to offer pure mathematics?
(Abstract is below)
Alan Reid - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - October 28-30, 2024
Event start date: Monday, October 28, 2024
Alan Reid (Rice University)
Finite shadows of infinite groups: What do they hide?
- Lecture 1: Monday, October 28, 2024, 5-6PM, Wilson 402 - Exploring infinite groups by finite quotients
- Lecture 2: Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 5-6PM, Wilson 402 - What is profinite rigidity?
- Lecture 3: Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 5-6PM, Wilson 402 - Grothendieck’s Problem and detecting finitely generated versus finitely presented
Kavita Ramanan - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 13-15, 2023
Event start date: Monday, November 13, 2023
Kavita Ramanan (Brown University) - Tales of high-dimensional distributions
Though they have a common thread, the three lectures will be self-contained, and can mostly be followed independently of each other.
- Lecture 1: November 13 | 5-6pm | Wilson 402
- Lecture 2: November 14 | 5-6pm | Nau 101
- Lecture 3: November 15 | 5-6pm | Wilson 402
Bjorn Poonen - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - January 24-26, 2023
Event start date: Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Bjorn Poonen (MIT)
Martin Hairer - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 29 - December 1, 2022
Event start date: Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Martin Hairer (Imperial College London)
Mikhail Khovanov - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - April 18-20, 2022
Event start date: Monday, April 18, 2022
Mikhail Khovanov (Columbia)
- Lecture 1 - “Universal construction and TQFTs: from Frobenius algebras to finite state automata”. Monday, April 18, 5:00-6:00pm, Nau 101. Notes
- Lecture 2 - “Homological algebra of link homology: categorification of the Jones polynomial and the Kuperberg bracket”. Tuesday, April 19, 5:00-6:00pm, Nau 101. Notes
- Lecture 3 - “Foams, categorification of Reshetikhin-Turaev link invariants: GL(N) link homology and the 4-color theorem”. Wednesday, April 20, 5:00-6:00pm, Ridley G006. Notes
The lectures will be in-person, and they will be preceded by the Workshop on Categorical Methods in Representation Theory and Quantum Topology.
Curtis McMullen - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 8-10, 2021
Event start date: Monday, November 8, 2021
Curtis McMullen (Harvard)
- Lecture 1 - “Solving the quintic by iteration”. Monday, November 8, 2021, 5:00-6:00pm, Nau 101.
- Lecture 2 - “Billiards and moduli spaces”. Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 5:00-6:00pm, Clark 108
- Lecture 3 - “Rigidity for planes in flexible 3-manifolds”. Wednesday, November 10, 5:00-6:00pm, Clark 108
The lectures are preceded by the Virginia Topology Conference.
Greg Lawler - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - February 12-14, 2020
Event start date: Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Greg Lawler (University of Chicago)
- Lecture 1 - “Random walks: Simple and Self-avoiding”. Wednesday, February 12, 2020. 5:15-6:15pm, Nau 101
- Lecture 2 - “Conformal Invariance and the Two-Dimensional Critical Phenomenon”. Thursday, February 13, 2020. 5-6pm, Monroe 124
- Lecture 3 - “Loop Measures and the Loop-Erased Random Walk”. Friday, February 14, 2020. 4-5pm, Monroe 124
Peter Sarnak - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 4-6, 2019
Event start date: Monday, November 4, 2019
Peter Sarnak (IAS)
- Lecture 1 - “Integral Quadratic Forms and Applications”. November 4, 5-6pm, Nau 101
- Lecture 2 - “Integer points on affine cubic surfaces”. November 5, 5-6pm, Monroe 124
- Lecture 3 - “Applications of points on subvarieties of tori”. November 6, 5-6pm, Nau 101
Van Vu - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - April 15-16, 2019
Event start date: Monday, April 15, 2019
Van Vu (Yale University)
The (random) matrix
- Lecture 1 - “Random matrices: Global distributions”. April 15, 5-6 pm, Monroe 124
- Lecture 2 - “Random matrices: Local distributions”. April 15, 6-7 pm, Monroe 124
- Lecture 3 - “Random matrices in Data Science”. April 16, 5-6 pm, Nau 101
This series of talks is devoted to modern aspects of random matrix theory.
Andrei Okounkov - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - October 22-24, 2018
Event start date: Monday, October 22, 2018
Andrei Okounkov (Columbia University)
New worlds for Lie theory
- Lecture 1 - October 22, 5-6pm, Nau 101
- Lecture 2 - October 23, 5-6pm, Nau 101
- Lecture 3 - October 24, 5-6pm, Nau 101
Preceded by the Workshop on Representation Theory, Combinatorics, and Geometry (October 19-21)
Irene Fonseca - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - March 15 and 16, 2018
Event start date: Thursday, March 15, 2018
Irene Fonseca (Carnegie Mellon University)
Variational Methods for Materials and Imaging Sciences
Abstract: Recently developed methods and a deep articulation of ideas from the Calculus of Variations, Geometric Measure Theory, and nonlinear Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), have been instrumental in the mathematical rigorous understanding of nonlinear phenomena in a plethora of physical and technological applications, ranging from analyzing instabilities in novel advanced materials to the denoising of medical images. This leads to the two talks of this series: Variational Problems in Materials Science and Variational Problems in Imaging Science.
Yair Minsky - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 13-15, 2017
Event start date: Monday, November 13, 2017
Yair Minsky (Yale University)
- Lecture 1. Hyperbolic 3-manifolds, their structure and deformations
- Lecture 2. Between 2 and 3 dimensions: Teichmuller theory, pleated surfaces, and the complex of curves
- Lecture 3. Quantitative models, Thurston's skinning map, and beyond
Benedict Gross - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - March 27-29, 2017
Event start date: Monday, March 27, 2017
Benedict H. Gross (Harvard)
- Lecture 1: The rank of elliptic curves
- Lecture 2: The arithmetic of hyperelliptic curves
- Lecture 3: Heegner points on modular curves
James Arthur - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 14-16, 2016
Event start date: Monday, November 14, 2016
James Arthur (University of Toronto)
- Lecture 1: L-functions and Number Theory
- Lecture 2: The Trace Formula and Automorphic Forms
- Lecture 3: Beyond Endoscopy and Functoriality
Karen Smith - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - February 29 - March 2, 2016
Event start date: Monday, February 29, 2016
Karen Smith (University of Michigan)
Algebra, Geometry and Analysis over Finite Fields
Ian Agol - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - October 14-16, 2015
Event start date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Ian Agol (Berkeley)
The Virtual Haken Conjecture
- Lecture 1: An overview of 3-Manifold Topology
- Lecture 2: What is Geometric Group Theory?
- Lecture 3: Geometric Group Theory and the Virtual Haken Conjecture
Vaughan Jones - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - April 6-8, 2015
Event start date: Monday, April 6, 2015
Vaughan Jones (Vanderbilt University)
- Lecture 1: Knots and Groups
- Lecture 2: Lecture 2: Von Neumann Algebra and Physics
- Lecture 3: Do all Subfactors arise in Conformal Field Theory?
Alex Lubotzky - Virginia Mathematics Lectures - November 18-20, 2014
Event start date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Alex Lubotzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Expanders: From One-Dimensional to Multi-Dimensional
- Lecture 1: Expander Graphs and Geometric/Topological Expanders
- Lecture 2: From Ramanujan Graphs to Ramanujan Complexes
- Lecture 3: Coboundary Expanders and Property Testing