In this issue of the Newsletter

Spaces of Functions with a Bounded Number of Critical Points

By John Pardon, Professor of Mathematics, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics

The Black Hole Information Paradox

A 50 Year Journey – By Samir D. Mathur

Puzzle Time

The Fisherman and the Boat by Alexander Abanov Integer Mutations by Maxim Braverman

The Simons Center Art and Outreach Program

A summary of the Art and Outreach events hosted by the Simons Center during the fall 2025 and winter 2026, including a series of Della Pietra sponsored lectures by Prof Avi Wigderson (IAS)

New Structures Found Within Quantum Field Theory. Interview with Professor Nikita Nekrasov

“We thought we understood quantum field theory—but there are still profound structures waiting to be uncovered.” — Professor Nikita Nekrasov In this in-depth interview, Professor Nikita Nekrasov discusses newly discovered structures within quantum field theory, shedding light on their mathematical foundations and physical significance. A must-watch for researchers and students interested in gauge theory, integrable … Read more

Simons Center Summer Concert Series 2025

2025 Summer Concerts The Art and Outreach Program at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University is pleased to present a new music series free and open to the public: Thursday July 10 Piano Performance by Liya Nigmati. Artist Bio 4:00 – 5:00 pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, … Read more

Milestones and Prizes

Congratulations to John Pardon on winning the New Horizons in Mathematics Prize for important results in geometry and topology, particularly in the field of symplectic geometry and pseudo-holomorphic curves, which are certain types of smooth surfaces in manifolds.

Confinement and QCD Strings: November 10 – 12, 2025

Organized by Igor Klebanov, Zohar Komargodski, Raju Venugopalan The workshop will cover a range of topics related to confining gauge theories, and non-perturbative QFT more broadly. Topics will include aspects of lattice gauge theory models, corrections to the Nambu-Goto action and the S-matrix bootstrap for confining strings, generalized symmetries on the lattice and in the … Read more

4th Simons Math Summer Workshop: Algebraic Methods in Probability, July 6 – 24, 2026

Organized By: Alexei Borodin (MIT) Ivan Corwin (Columbia) Evita Nestoridi (Stony Brook) Much of probability theory is concerned with understanding phenomena and structure that emerges in large, complex systems driven by disorder. This understanding is often first established for special example systems that are analyzable due to hidden connections to algebra. This summer workshop will … Read more