In this issue of the Newsletter

Outreach Lectures – Book Talks

Chris Quigg in Conversation with George Sterman. Grace in All Simplicity: Beauty, Truth, and Wonders on the Path to the Higgs Boson and New Laws of Nature Robert P. Crease. The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory

Moduli

By Steven Bradlow, Daniel Halpern-Leistner, Victoria Hoskins, Margarida Melo, and Anna Wienhard  

Brownian Motion and Dirichlet Zeros

By Giuseppe Mussardo Professor of Theoretical Physics, SISSA (Trieste)  

The SCGP Seeks a Center Administrator

Job Description:  Center Administrator, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics  Required Qualifications: (As evidenced by an attached resume) Bachelor’s Degree. Four [4] years of full time, administrative experience in an academic environment managing major business-related aspects, such as budget and personnel. Supervisory experience to include guiding, developing and leading staff career pathing. Budget management experience. Experience managing complex projects. Experience managing and executing events. Experience … Read more

Vertex Algebras and Gauge Theory: December 17 – 21, 2018

Organized by Sergei Gukov, Tomoyuki Arakawa, Boris Feigin, Alba Grassi, Hiraku Nakajima, Nikita Nekrasov, Andrei Okounkov Vertex operator algebras have a long history of interaction with physics by describing two-dimensional systems at criticality. More recently, they appeared, via BPS/CFT correspondence, in the context of higher-dimensional gauge theories and associated brane constructions in string theory. For … Read more

Della Pietra Lecture Series Presents Dr. Kip Thorne, April 19 and 20, 2018

Date: Thursday April 19, 2018 Lecture: 12:00 pm, Simons Center Della Pietra Family Auditorium Title: Exploring the Universe with Gravitational Waves: From the Big Bang to Black Holes Abstract: There are only two types of waves that can propagate across the universe: Electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves. Galileo initiated electromagnetic astronomy 400 years ago, by pointing a telescope … Read more

Della Pietra Lecture Series Presents Dr. Carl Safina, March 19 and 23, 2018

The Della Pietra Lecture Series is pleased to present Dr. Carl Safina, Author, Conservationist and Endowed Professor Title: Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel General Public Lecture, Monday, March 19, 2018: 5:30 pm, Simons Center Della Pietra Family Auditorium (Reception at 5:00pm) Special Presentation for High School Students, Friday, March 23, 2018: 11:00 am, Simons Center Della … Read more

Geometry and Physics of Hitchin Systems: January 22 – June 21, 2019

Organized by Lara Anderson and Laura Schaposnik Hitchin systems have found remarkable applications in many different areas of mathematics and physics. In particular, Hausel and Thaddeus related Higgs bundles to mirror symmetry, and in the work of Kapustin and Witten, Higgs bundles were used to give a physical derivation of the geometric Langlands correspondence. Moreover, … Read more

SCGP News Volume IX

The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics is pleased to announce the latest issue of SCGP News, a biannual publication which reflects the Center’s mission, and scientific and cultural events.  

VISUALIZING THE BRAIN: EARLY IMAGING

Carl Schoonover’s acclaimed book Portraits of the Mind is a fascinating visual odyssey exploring how we investigate the workings of the human brain through images—from medieval sketches and 19th century drawings by the founder of neuroscience, to state-of-the-art techniques that fuel research today. Schoonover is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Axel Laboratory at Columbia … Read more

TIMELESS AND BORDERLESS ADVENTURE: Conversation with Cumrun Vafa

Dr. Cumrun Vafa sits down with Maria Shtilmark after receiving the 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics along with Drs. Joseph Polchinski and Andrew Strominger for his research in transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.