Exploring the ‘wonderful world’ of symplectic geometry to solve problems in mechanics

Russian-American mathematician Yakov Eliashberg delivers a public talk at IIT Madras, launching TNQ Numbers and Shapes initiative in India.

Russian-American mathematician and Wolf Prize laureate Yakov Eliashberg delivered a public talk at IIT Madras on Thursday, as part of the inaugural annual TNQ Distinguished Lecture in Mathematics.

The talk was part of TNQ Numbers and Shapes, a new initiative by the TNQ Foundation “to advance the study of mathematics and to support mathematical research in India. This will be through a mentorship and collaboration programme that gives students exposure, guidance, and travel support to enable them to pursue cutting-edge research in pure mathematics”. The flagship event of the initiative is the lecture that will be held in Chennai every year during a week-long workshop.

The initiative will focus on geometry and topology, number theory, ergodic theory and dynamical systems, algebraic geometry, and probability and analysis.

Ahead of the lecture, TNQ Foundation head Mariam Ram said, “TNQ launched the Distinguished Lectures in the Life Sciences series in 2008, bringing together well-known life science experts to India and giving students and researchers opportunities to interact with their field’s leaders.”

Ms. Ram said she hoped the Foundation’s new mathematics programme would lead to deeper and more meaningful collaborations between mathematicians in India. “These lectures will commemorate India’s and particularly Tamil Nadu’s long history in pure mathematics,” she said, adding, “Our hope is that TNQ Numbers and Shapes will go at least a little way in inspiring students to produce beautiful mathematics.”

Professor Eliashberg and Simon Donaldson won the Wolf Prize for mathematics in 2020 “for their contributions to differential geometry and topology”.

According to the TNQ Foundation, the emergence of symplectic and contact topology — a field in which Professor Eliashberg is a leader — has been one of the most important and long-term advances in mathematical research in recent decades. He is currently the Herald L. and Caroline L. Ritch Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University.