# PIMS Colloquium Proposals

## Summary

**Newly suggested speakers**
| Speaker | Institution| Area | Nominator |
| -------- | ----- | --- | --------- |
| Sheehan Olver|Imperial College London|Numerical Analysis|Richard Slewinsky (UM)|
| Mariel Vazquez|UC Davis|Mathematical Biology|Chris Soteros (USask)|
| Terry Tao|UCLA|Number Theory/PDE|AQ|
| Tim Gowers|Collège de France|Combinatorics|AQ|
| Amie Wilkinson|Chicago|Dynamical Systems|AQ|
| Melanie Matchett Wood|Harvard|Number Theory|AQ|
| Pamela Harris|U. Wisconsin (Milwaukee)|Alg. Combinatorics|Steph|
| Rosa Orellana|Dartmouth|Representation Theory|Steph|
| Jordan Ellenberg|U. Wisconsin (Madison)|Arithmetic Geometry|AQ|

**Other names suggested in previous years**

| Speaker | Institution| Area | Year Proposed| Nominator |
| -------- | ----- | --- | ------------ | ----------|
|Robert Morris|IMPA|Probabilistic Combinatorics|2023|Morrison (UVic)|
|Sarah Koch|Michigan|Complex Dynamics|2023|Jayadev|
|Laura DeMarco|Harvard|Algebraic Dynamics|2023|Jayadev|
|Richard Schwartz|Brown|Geometric Dynamics|2023|Jayadev|
|Giulio Tiozzo|Toronto|Dynamical Systems|2023|Jayadev|
|Francesco Cellarossi|Queens|Dynamical Systems|2023|Jayadev|
|Bobby Wilson|UW|Harmonic Analysis|2023|Jayadev|
|Wilfrid Gangbo|UCLA|Optimal Transport|2023|Jayadev|
|Candice Price|Smith|DNA topology and knots|2023|Jayadev|
|Chelsea Walton|Rice|Algebras|2023|Jayadev|
|Eveliina Peltola|Bonn and Aalto (Helsinki)|Mathematical physics|2023|Schippers (UM)|
|Tatiana Toro|UW and MSRI|Geometric Measure Theory|2023|AQ|
|Kristin Lauter|Facebook AI|Number Theory|2023|Renate|
|Rick Kenyon|Yale|Statistical Mechanics++|2023|AQ|
|Scott Sheffield|MIT|Probability|2023|Steffen|
|Yilin Wang|IHES|Statistical Mechanics|2023|Steffen|
|Brent Werness|Amazon|Machine Learning|2023|Steffen|
|Ravi Vakil|Stanford|Algebraic Geometry|2023|Steph|
|Maria Chudnovsky|Princeton|Graph Theory|2023|Steph|
|Terry Rockafellar| UW| Optimization|2023|Shawn Wang (UBCO)|
|Philip Maini|Oxford|Math Bio|2023|Stéphanie|
|Matthew Kennedy|Waterloo|Operator Algebras|2023|Clouatre (UM)|
|Tom Ransford|Laval|Spectral Theory|2023|Clouatre (UM)|
|Igor Klep|Ljubljana|Algebraic Geometry|2023|Clouatre (UM)|
|Ailana Fraser|UBC|Differential Geometry|2022|CMS|
|Cynthia Vinzant|UW|Real Algebraic Geometry / Algebraic combinatorics|2022|SFU|
|Andres Navas|Santiago de Chile|Dynamics and Geometric Group Theory|2022|UM|
|Lucy Campbell|Carlton|Geophysical Fluid Dynamics|2022|Jayadev|
|Emilie Purvine|Pacific Northwest National Laboratory|Data Science|2022|Jayadev|
|Jonathan Noel|UVic|Combinatorics|2022|Jayadev|
|Luis Caffarelli|UT Austin|PDEs|2022|Gunther|
|Carlos Kenig|Chicago|PDEs|2022|Gunther|
|Carolyn Colijn|SFU|Big data/epidemiology|2022|Anthony|
|Julia Wolf|Cambridge|Additive Combinatorics|2022|Anthony|
|Adam Oberman |McGill | nonlinear PDEs |2021|UM |
|Jie Shen| Purdue| numerical analysis|2021| UM |
|Yi-Zhi Huang|Rutgers| vertex algebras and conformal field theory|2021||
|Mireille Bousquet| Bordeaux | enumerative combinatorics |2021| Rechnitzer |
|Mariel Vázquez|UC Davis| DNA topology |2021|Rechnitzer |
|Mahya Ghandehari|Delaware|Graph theory and Abstract Harmonic Analysis|2021|UA|
|Benjy Weiss|Jerusalem|Ergodic theory|2021|Marcus (UBC)|
|Thérèse Biedl|Waterloo|Graphical algorithms|2021|Mynhardt (UV)|
|Jacob Bedrossian|Maryland|Fluid dynamics/chaos|2021|Weiran|
|Hannah Fry|UCL|Mathematical modelling|2021|Steven|
|Jordan Ellenberg|Wisconsin|Arithmetic algebraic geometry|2021|Anthony|
|Alex Kontorovich|Rutgers|Analytic number theory|2021|Anthony|
|Jim Propp|UMass Lowell|Combinatorics|2021|Anthony|
|Mary Lou Zeeman|Bowdoin College|Mathematical Biology|2020|UVic|
|Pawel Horodecki|Gdansk University|Quantum Information|2020|UC|
|Jason de Koening|Calgary|Bioinformatics|2020|UC|
|Maciej Zworski|Berkeley|Microlocal Analysis/PDEs|2020|UW|

**Speakers in previous years**

| Speaker | Institution| Area | Academic Year|
| -------- | ----- | --- | -------------|
|Terry Tao|UCLA|Harmonic analysis++|24-25|
|Amie Wilkinson|U. Chicago|Dynamical Systems|24-25|
|Sheehan Olver|Imperial College London|Numerical Analysis|24-25|
|Mariel Vazquez|UC Davis|Math Bio|24-25|
|Pamela Harris|U. Wisconsin Milwaukee|Alg Comb.|24-25|
|Jordan Ellenberg|U. Wisconsin|Arithmetic Geometry|24-25|
|Sarah Koch|University of Michigan|Complex dynamics|23-24|
|Wilfrid Gangbo|UCLA|Optimal transport|23-24|
|Scott Sheffield|MIT|Spatial Probability|23-24|
|Kristin Lauter|Meta|Cryptography|23-24|
|Bryna Kra|Northwestern|Ergodic Theory|22-23|
|Helen Byrne|Oxford|Mathematical Biology|22-23|
|Weinan E|Peking|Machine Learning|22-23|
|Alessio Figalli|ETH|PDEs|22-23|
|Ingrid Daubechies|Duke|Applied Harmonic Analysis|21-22|
|Assaf Naor|Princeton|Banach spaces| 21-22|
|Holly Krieger|Cambridge|Algebraic Dynamics| 21-22|
|Benoît Perthame|Sorbonne|PDEs| 21-22|
|Rafe Mazzeo|Stanford|Microlocal Analysis/PDEs|21-22|
|Maryanthe Malliaris|Chicago|Model Theory|21-22|
|Ben Green|Oxford|Combinatorics/Harmonic Analysis|20-21|
|Lauren Williams|Harvard|Algebraic Combinatorics|20-21|
|John Baez|Riverside|Mathematical Physics|20-21|

<h1>
Links and info for current and last year's suggested speakers
</h1>

<h2>
Sheehan Olver
</h2>

To the PIMS Colloquium Committee:
We wish to nominate Dr. Sheehan Olver for a PIMS network-wide colloquium.
Dr. Olver is a Reader in Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Physics at Imperial
College, London. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2008,
and followed this with a Junior Research Fellowship at St. John's College, University
of Oxford, and a (senior) lectureship at The University of Sydney before taking up his
readership at Imperial. He is a numerical analyst who has published major advances
in spectral methods, orthogonal polynomials, Riemann{Hilbert problems, fractional
di erential equations, equilibrium measures, random matrix theory, integrable systems
and oscillatory integrals. He was awarded the Adams' Prize in 2012 for his work
on the numerical solution of Riemann{Hilbert problems, and co-authored a SIAM
book on the topic. He is an active developer of open-source software, including the
ApproxFun.jl package among many others in the JuliaApproximation ecosystem. His
current interests are in the development of (data-)sparse spectral methods and fast
algorithms for fractional and partial di erential equations in multiple dimensions on
complicated geometries.
Dr. Olver is no stranger to the conference scene. Most recently, he has given a
plenary lecture on quasi-optimal hp-FEM at South African Numerical and Applied
Mathematics (SANUM) 2024 conference. He has also given a colloquium at Cornell
University on computing equilibrium distributions of interacting particles, has
organized countless mini-symposia at large international conferences including SIAM
meetings, ICOSAHOM, Strathclyde's biennial numerical analysis conference, CMS
meetings, and has given several workshop talks at BIRS and the Isaac Newton Institute,
University of Cambridge.
More information about Dr. Olver, his achievements, and distinctions may be found
at his website (https://www.ma.imperial.ac.uk/ solver/).
Through his neurodiversity and multiraciality, Dr. Olver is well-acquainted with the
struggles of equity-seeking groups and the importance of inclusivity of the multitude of
diversities that make academia
ourish. This is practically borne out most recently at
the one and a half day pre-conference workshop on the Julia computing language and
its machine learning packages he hosted before his plenary lecture at SANUM 2024.
The audience included a signi cant number of students from equity-seeking groups.
I am con dent that Dr. Olver's lecture would attract and inspire other neurodiverse
thinkers to excellence in the mathematical sciences.
Please give this nomination full consideration.

<h2>
Mariel Vazquez (UC Davis)
</h2>

Education and Degree(s)
1995 B.Sc. in Mathematics, National Autonomous University of Mexico
2000 Ph.D. in Mathematical Biology, Florida State University, Advisor: De Witt Sumners
Academic Positions:

Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematics, UC Berkeley, 2000-2005, Faculty Mentor: Rainer Sachs
Faculty member, Mathematics, San Francisco State University, 2005 - 2014
Professor of Mathematics, and of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, UCDavis, July 2014 - present

Please see her UC Davis websites for further details:

https://biology.ucdavis.edu/people/mariel-vazquez

https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/people/general-profile?fac_id=mariel (last updated 2019)

Some of her awards:

. 2024 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) https://diversity.ucdavis.edu/news/mariel-vazquez-named-aaas-fellow
. 2024 SIAM Invited Address, Joint Math Meetings, San Francisco, CA
. 2022 MOSAIC Lecture, Grand Valley State University, MI
. 2020 Fellow, American Mathematical Society (AMS)
. 2018 Inaugural Fellow, Association for Women in Mathematics
. 2016 Blackwell Tapia Prize
. 2014 CAMPOS Faculty Scholar, NSF ADVANCE, UC Davis
. 2014 Mohammed Dahleh Distinguished Lectureship
. 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
. 2012 Emerging Scholar, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Magazine
. 2011 National Science Foundation CAREER Award

A statement, if applicable, giving details of ways in which this nominee would contribute to PIMS' goals of promoting under-represented groups in mathematics
She is passionate about encouraging women and under-represented minorities in science and mathematics and is Faculty Director of the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS) at UC Davis.
She is a 2024 recipient of the UCDavis: Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity and Community, Honorary Service Award https://diversity.ucdavis.edu/chancellors-achievement-awards-diversity-and-community.

If possible, a statement addressing the proposed speaker's ability to give a broadly accessible engaging talk

Mariel Vazquez is outstanding as an expositor of mathematics, an inspirational mentor to young mathematicians, and a public face of excellence in mathematics.
She was a featured speaker at the National Math Festivals in Washington DC in 2015 and 2017. She has been a keynote and plenary speaker at many international meetings, including the 2018 SIAM national meeting, the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meeting, and
the 2014 Mohammed Daleh Distinguished Lecture at UC Santa Barbara. She gave the SIAM invited address at the January 2024 Joint Mathematics Meeting.
She gives generously of her time in service to mathematics, including as a member of SLMath/MSRI committees and the NIMBioS board.

<h2>
Pamela Harris (UW Milwaukee)
</h2>

https://www.pamelaeharris.com/

(Quoting Stephanie vW): Being an algebraic combinatorialist I would like to nominate

Pamela Harris (UWM) who recently gave an astounding CMS public lecture where you literally got to choose your own adventure - the audience chose the next segue to a topic.

<h2>
Rosa Orellana (Dartmouth)
</h2>

(Quoting Stephanie vW): Also another nomination is Rosa Orellana (Dartmouth) who gives amazing lectures on representation theory.

<h2>
Jordan Ellenberg (Wisconsin)
</h2>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Ellenberg

https://people.math.wisc.edu/~ellenberg/

<h2>
Robert Morris (IMPA, Rio)
</h2>

We propose to invite Rob Morris to talk about a very recent breakthrough on Ramsey numbers (https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09521).

The classical Ramsey problem concerns how large a complete graph needs to be such that when its edges are coloured red or blue, a monochromatic subgraph of size k is present. More formally, the Ramsey number, denoted R(k), is the smallest integer n such that any 2-colouring of the edges of a complete n-vertex graph yields a monochromatic clique of size k. This number was first introduced in the 1930s by Ramsey, who proved that R(k) is finite. Shortly after, Erdős and Szekeres gave an upper bound of 4^k. Improving this bound has attracted a lot of attention over the past 75 years. Very recently, Campos, Griffiths, Morris, and Saharasabude gave the first *exponential* improvement on this bound, showing that there exists c>0 such that R(k) \le (4-c)^k, for sufficiently large k. This is a major breakthrough in a very well studied area of combinatorics.

Rob Morris is a full Professor at IMPA, which is the most prestigious mathematical institution in Latin
America, and his research achievements have recently been recognised by various prizes, including
the Prize of the Mathematical Congress of the Americas, the Fulkerson Prize, the George Pólya Prize in Combinatorics, and the European Prize in Combinatorics. In addition to this, he was a speaker at the 2018 ICM.

<h2>
Sarah Koch (Michigan)
</h2>

Web page: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kochsc/

<h2>
Laura DeMarco (Harvard)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_DeMarco

<h2>
Richard Schwartz (Brown)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Schwartz_(mathematician)

Web page: https://www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/papers.html

<h2>
Giulio Tiozzo (Toronto)
</h2>

Web page: http://www.math.toronto.edu/tiozzo/

<h2>
Francesco Cellarossi (Queens)
</h2>

Web page: https://www.queensu.ca/mathstat/people/faculty/profiles/cellarosi

<h2>
Bobby Wilson (UW)
</h2>

Web page: https://sites.math.washington.edu/~blwilson/

<h2>
Wilfrid Gangbo (UCLA)
</h2>

Web page: https://www.math.ucla.edu/~wgangbo/

<h2>
Candice Price (Smith)
</h2>

Web page: https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/candice-price

<h2>
Chelsea Watson (Rice)
</h2>

Web page: https://math.rice.edu/~notlaw/

<h2>
Eveliina Peltola (Bonn)
</h2>

Web page: https://eveliinapeltola.webnode.fi/about-me/

**Proposed speaker's ability to give a broadly accessible engaging talk**: She is widely sought after for talks. Please note that her webpage does not have an explicit list of talks (perhaps a consequence of Finnish cultural norms). She has given many talks in the US and Europe, including at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, UCLA, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Her talks are engaging, and the topics are accessible (lending themselves to physical interpretation and pictures). I have attended one talk of hers and watched many online, and she is a first-rate expositor.

<h2>
Richard Kenyon (Yale)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kenyon

<h2>
Tatiana Toro (UW and SLMath)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana_Toro

<h2>
Kristin Lauter (Facebook AI)
</h2>

Kristin E. Lauter
Director of Research Science, FAIR (Facebook AI Research) Labs North America
[e-mail]

Kristin has an outstanding decades-long scholarly record as a leading researcher in industry, first with Microsoft Research for 22 years and, as of 2021, with Meta. She has some 200 publications in a wide variety of fields, ranging from pure number theory and cryptography to machine learning and AI. She is a Fellow of AMS, AWM, SIAM and AAAS as well as a former president of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

Kristin has also been a tireless advocate for women in STEM (mainly math) for decades. in 2008, she co-founded the Women in Numbers Network (womeninnumbertheory.org), a research collaboration community for women in number theory. WIN sponsors regular workshops at BIRS and across Europe (about 8 or 9 to date), where teams of junior and senior women scholars collaborate and publish their results in peer reviewed proceedings. (Disclosure: I am also a WIN co-founder.)

Kristin is a highly sought-after speaker who gives excellent general interest talks. She has delivered plenary addresses at many high profile events, including Joint Meetings. She was MAA's Polya Lecturer 2018-2020.

An excellent snapshot of Kristin's many achievements can be found on her Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Lauter.

Other web links:
https://ai.facebook.com/people/kristin-lauter/ (with links to the Wikipedia entry and Google Scholar profile)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristin-Lauter

Kristin is based in Seattle, so her time zone works well with all the PIMS sites. She is an Affiliate Professor at U Washington's Math Department, so there is a nice PIMS connection as well.

<h2>
Yilin Wang (IHES)
</h2>

Yilin Wang is a rising star working on the complex analytic side of statistical physics/conformally invariant stochastic processes. She is very young (graduated in 2019 at ETH with Wendelin Werner) and received the Maryam Mirzahkani New Frontiers prize in 2022. Of the outstanding young women in the field (including Nina Holden at the Courant Institute, and Eveliina Peltola at Aalto University), in my opinion she is the best and most engaging speaker. She spent some time at UW and loves the PNW.

<h2>
Scott Sheffield (MIT)
</h2>

Scott Sheffield (MIT) is one the worlds leading probabilists and also a fantastic speaker. He was a plenary speaker at the 2022 ICM. He spent two years as a Microsoft Postdoc in the PNW so has some connection.

<h2>
Brent Werness (Amazon)
</h2>

Brent Werness left academia after spending Postdoc years with me (at UW) and Wendelin Werner (at ETH Zurich).
He is both an excellent mathematician and outstanding lecturer/teacher, and is a senior lead instructor at Amazon's machine learning University. I thought it could be exciting to hear first hand how mathematics is not only used but also taught outside academia.

<h2>
Ravi Vakil (Stanford)
</h2>

http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/

from which it says

I am a Professor of Mathematics and the Robert K. Packard University Fellow at Stanford University, and was the David Huntington Faculty Scholar. I have received the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, an American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellowship, a Frederick E. Terman fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, the presidential award PECASE, the Brown Faculty Fellowship. I have received the Coxeter-James Prize from the Canadian Mathematical Society, and André-Aisenstadt Prize from the CRM in Montréal. (This may give you a clue that I am Canadian.) I was the 2009 Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecturer at Mathfest, and I am the Mathematical Association of America's Pólya Lecturer 2012-2014. The article based on this lecture has won the Lester R. Ford Award in 2012 and the Chauvenet Prize in 2014. In 2013, I was a Simons Fellow in Mathematics.

<h2>
Maria Chudnovsky (Princeton, Graph Theory)
</h2>

http://web.math.princeton.edu/~mchudnov/

Wikipedia:

In 2004 Chudnovsky was named one of the "Brilliant 10" by Popular Science magazine. Her work on the strong perfect graph theorem won for her and her co-authors the 2009 Fulkerson Prize. In 2012 she was awarded a "genius award" under the MacArthur Fellows Program.

<h1>
Links and info for previous years' suggested speakers
</h1>

<h2>Adam Oberman</h2>

Web page: [https://www.adamoberman.net/](https://www.adamoberman.net)

Professor, Dept of Mathematics & Statistics, McGill and director of Applied Mathematics
Laboratory at the CRM.
Prof Oberman is one of the leading researchers in nonlinear PDEs and analysis of
numerical methods for fully nonlinear PDEs. His recent works on the mathematics
and optimization of deep neural networks will have a large impact on this very
active area of research. He has authored 50 highly-cited papers and supervised
5 postdocs. He was a Simons Fellow at UCLA in 2017.

Not only is Prof Oberman an outstanding researcher, he also gives very clear and engaging lectures. This is evident from videos of his tutorials on machine learning on his webpage.

<h2>Jie Shen</h2>
[e-mail]
<a href=https://www.math.purdue.edu/~shen7/>www.math.purdue.edu/~shen7</a>

Professor and director of Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics,
Purdue University.
Prof Shen is one of the most influential numerical analysts today. An AMS
fellow, he has authored over 200 papers and 2 books with a MATHSCINET
citation of over 6000. Prof Shen has given more than a dozen plenary
lectures. He is on the editorial boards of 10 journals and has supervised
more than 20 PhD students and 10 postdocs.

I’ve attended several of Prof Shen’s lectures including a colloquium intended for a general audience. In my opinion, he is able to deliver an informative and appealing lecture for non-specialists.

<h2>
Yi-Zhi Huang
</h2>

[e-mail]

Professor, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

<a href=https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~yzhuang/>
https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~yzhuang/
</a>

The speaker is a renowned expert on vertex algebras and conformal field theory. He constructed the tensor category of modules for vertex algebras (satisfying some natural conditions) and proved Verlinde conjecture. He recently made progress on the study of twisted modules for vertex algebras and orbifold conformal field theory.

*The speaker himself falls in the category of visible minorities defined by the Government of Canada.*

*Beyond topological quantum field theory, two-dimensional conformal field theory is currently the only quantum field theory with rigorous mathematical construction. The construction is very deep, involving algebra, analysis, geometry and number theory. His talk will be interesting to both mathematicians and physicists.*

<h2>
Mariel Vázquez
</h2>
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_Vázquez>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_Vázquez
</a>

<h2>
Mireille Bousquet
</h2>
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireille_Bousquet-Mélou>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireille_Bousquet-Mélou
</a>

<h2>
Tim Gowers
</h2>
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Gowers>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Gowers<a></a>

<h2>
Mahya Ghandehari
</h2>

I am hereby proposing Mahya Ghandehari ([e-mail]) of the University of Delaware as a speaker in this colloquium.

Looking at Mahya's CV and her publications record, her mathematical versatility comes across as striking. Having first obtained a BSc in Engineering the Isfahan University of Technology followed by an MSc in Engineering at Sharif University of Technology in her native Iran, she turned to pure mathematics after arriving in Canada in 2003. After an MSc in mathematics (on graph theory) at Concordia University, she went on to obtain a PhD (on abstract harmonic analysis), which she completed in 2010. Her published research not only covers the areas in which she obtained her graduate mathematics degrees, but also wavelets and - most recently - data science.

As a researcher in Banach algebras, operator spaces, and abstract harmonic analysis, I cannot say much about the merits of her work in graph theory, wavelets, let alone data science. In the area of abstract harmonic analysis, she is definitely one of the top people of her generation in North America.

I met Mahya at various conference over the past decade an a half and her her give presentations: she is definitely a very good presenter who can convey her mathematics to a general audience.

Thomas writes that the proposal should include a statement giving details about equity, diversity, and inclusion considerations. I believe that Mahya - being a Muslim woman hailing from Iran - fits the profile.

A short CV can be found at:
https://sites.google.com/site/mahyaghandeharipage/home/CV-Sept2014.pdf?attredirects=0

<h2>
Mary Lou Zeeman
</h2>

Mary Lou Zeeman ([e-mail]) is Wells Johnson Professor
of Mathematics at Bowdoin College, ME, USA.
[CV](https://www.math.uvic.ca/faculty/aquas/zcv.pdf)

From her CV, it is apparent that Mary Lou is a world leader in the
mathematics of climate and sustainability. She was co-founder of the SIAM
Activity Group on Mathematics of Planet Earth, and she currently helps to
direct networks on climate research and sustainability. Her recent research
on transient dynamics and resilience uses dynamical system theory applied to
biological systems. This collaborative work has appeared in Science (a 2018
paper with 109 citations according to Google Scholar), Nature Sustainabil-
ity and Physics of life reviews (a 2020 paper that already has 28 citations).
These topics will be of interest to a wide range of PIMS researchers, including
mathematicians, statisticians, biologists, climate scientists and environmen-
tal scientists. Mary Lou has expressed interest in giving a PIMS lecture with
a focus on a flow-kick framework for resilience using deterministic ODEs and
stochastic dynamics.

Mary Lou actively engages students in her research, and positively en-
courages diversity. For example, she was one of the organizers of the 2020
(virtual) Summer School organized by the American Institute of Mathematics
(AIM) in San Jose, California, and the Mathematics and Climate Research
Network (MCRN), which chose 41 students out of around 500 applicants,
resulting in a diverse student population.
In her talks, Mary Lou engages the audience. She is known for giving
talks that are broadly accessible: for example, she has given public lectures
at National Mathematics Festivals. She is very good at explaining complex
ideas in dynamical systems, and giving real life examples.

<h2>
Pawel Horodecki
</h2>

Horodecki's CV can be found <a href="http://www.math.uvic.ca/faculty/aquas/horocv.pdf">here</a>.

<b>Rationale for the invitation</b>
Paweł Horodecki is undoubtedly one of the most prominent scientists worldwide in quantum information, an area of mathematical physics that is becoming increasingly important. He has an impressive track-record of groundbreaking contributions across virtually all areas of quantum information, as witnessed by his outstanding CV. He is one of the researchers who pioneered the study of entanglement for mixed quantum states, which has evolved into a mainstream research area, and is regarded one of the most difficult aspects of quantum information for the high level of mathematical sophistication required. Paweł Horodecki has been the leader of numerous research projects and collaborations at the international level, being invited for several prestigious visiting positions. His network-wide colloquium will be a unique opportunity for all members of the PIMS network to learn the latest advances and future challenges of quantum information, directly from a scientist who has been shaping the future of this discipline from its very beginning.

<b>Nominee’s talk experience</b>
On top of several specialist seminars, Paweł Horodecki has given various talks for broader audience in respected venues. He is a very cultivated researcher, with cultural interests ranging beyond science, to encompass literature and philosophy. This makes him very skilled to engage with diverse types of audience, even non-scientists.

In 2009 he was the plenary speaker for an evening talk at the annual conference of the Atomic and Molecular Division of the European Physical Society (EGAS), held in Gdansk, and opened by the renowned physicist Alain Aspect. The objective of Paweł Horodecki’s talk “Quantum information – why is it fascinating?” was presenting quantum information to non-specialists, in order to attract new researchers to this field. In 2016, he was invited as a speaker at the event “Parallel worlds: English and physics” at the Institute of English Literature at the University of Warsaw, as part of the celebrations for the bicentenary of the university. The very successful event was aimed at building a bridge between science and literature, with attendees coming from both specialties. Paweł Horodecki gave the talk “Quantum mechanics at the limits of cognition” in the session “Uncertainty, anamorphosis, epistemology”.

In 2018, he was an invited speaker in one event of a series of activities organized by the Copernicus Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Krakow, whose mission is to advance the popularization of science to the general public. The common theme of the series of activities was “Pathways to the infinity”, featuring scientists, philosophers and poets. Paweł Horodecki gave the talk “Quantum inscriptions: the trace of the infinity – searching for the infinity in quantum mechanics”. Finally, just a few weeks ago, in 2020, he was invited to give the talk “The poetry of the Universe”, at an event organized by Art Incubator Sopot, in Sopot, Poland, exploring the connections between arts and math. In particular, he linked concepts of quantum information to poetry, making connections to the works by three Nobel laureates in literature.

<h2>
Jason de Koening
</h2>
1. Name and contact information of the proposed speaker;

Dr. Jason de Koning. Email: [e-mail]

2. Affiliation;

University of Calgary.

3. A brief biography or CV (1-2 pages) of the proposed speaker [this item can be replaced by a web link to a page providing similar information];

CV: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondk/?originalSubdomain=ca">https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondk/?originalSubdomain=ca</a>
<a href="http://lab.jasondk.io">Research group: </a>

4. A one paragraph scientific rationale for inviting the proposed speaker;

Dr. de Koening is a computational biologist who is working on mathematical models characterizing molecular evolution using genomic big-data. He is an expert in mathematics, statistics, computer science and biology. Recently, he has developed several models that challenges the fundamentals of established mathematical theory underlying evolution. A notable example is that he has analyzed the rate of molecular vvolution when mutation may not be weak. This work will bring a breakthrough to how people understand evolution. He understands the application fields and speaks the professional language of mathematicians, therefore will be an excellent speaker for PIMS audiences.

5. A statement, if applicable, giving details of ways in which this nominee would contribute to PIMS' goals of promoting under-represented groups;

Dr. de Koning has a track record of promoting diversity in science.

6. If possible, a statement addressing the nominee's ability to give a broadly accessible engaging talk;

Dr. de Koening’s interdisciplinary background is particularly useful in giving a broadly accessible talk. He teaches mathematics and statistics to biological students in his classes, receiving excellent teaching evaluations. He is able to introduce the biological background in his professional field in plain English, as well as conveying deep mathematical theories to general audience.

<h2>
David Donoho
</h2>

Well known for L¹ image reconstruction work, as well as general work in mathematical statistics.
Good speaker and mathematician.

<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Donoho>Wiki page</a>
<h2>
Maciej Zworski
</h2>

Good speaker and mathematician.
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maciej_Zworski>Wiki page</a>

<h2>
Thérèse Biedl
</h2>

<a href=https://uwaterloo.ca/computer-science/people-profiles/therese-biedl>web site</a>

<h2>
Maryanthe Malliaris
</h2>

Winner of the Hausdorff Medal in Logic (with Saharon Shelah); speaker at ICM.
Very good speaker.
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryanthe_Malliaris>web site</a>

<h2>
Benjy Weiss
</h2>

Well known senior figure in ergodic theory
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Weiss>web site</a>

<h2>
Jacob Bedrossian
</h2>

Bedrossian has made fundamental contributions to fluid dynamics, especially to the study of Chaos. He will be an invited speaker at ICM 2022 and has received numerous awards including the inaugural Peter Lax Award, 2019 IMA prize, and 2019 SIAG/APDE Prize.

He is a very good speaker.

<h2>
Jordan Ellenberg
</h2>

Author of "How not to be Wrong". Joint author (with Akshay Venkatesh) of a
paper in ICM Proceedings. 4 papers in Annals.

<h2>
Alex Kontorovich
</h2>

Has produced excellent public video lectures. Annals paper (2014)

<h2>
Yann LeCun
</h2>

<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_LeCun>Wiki page</a>
<a href=http://yann.lecun.com/>Home page</a>
LeCun is a VP at Facebook, and a Professor at Courant. He is a winner of the
ACM Turing Award.

<h2>
Jim Propp
</h2>

Propp has extremely broad interests around probability and combinatorics.
He is well known for the widely used "Coupling from the Past" algorithm
with David Wilson that plays a key role in the study of Markov chains.
He has a strong interest in communicating mathematics and has written
articles on a wide variety of topics aimed at a broader mathematical audience.

<h2>
Cynthia Vinzant
</h2>

CV: Please see Prof. Vinzant's web page here [http://sites.math.washington.edu/~vinzant/] for biographic and publication details.

Scientific rationale:

Cynthia Vinzant's research examines real and complex algebraic geometry, convex optimization, and combinatorics. Among her most exciting accomplishments is a recent proof of Mason's Conjecture for matroids (dating back to 1972) in its strongest form -- work of interest in all three of these fields and of interest to many researchers in the PIMS network. Notably, there is significant interest in algebra, combinatorics, and the connections between them at SFU.

Vinzant's research has been published in both pure and applied mathematics journals, as well as in the two most prominent conferences in theory of computation, STOC (Symposium on the Theory Of Computation) and FOCS (Foundations of Computer Science). A colloquium talk by Vinzant would be an excellent opportunity for faculty and students in a wide range of areas to hear about her ongoing work on these topics.

Vinzant is one of the most prominent researchers in real algebraic geometry today, and is a holder of an NSF CAREER Grant, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and a recent von Neumann Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study. She is a role model to mathematicians and students in the PIMS network and in mathematics more generally.

<h2>
Philip Maini or Helen Byrne
</h2>

Suggest a two-person talk as a conversation between a math biologist and a biologist. Both have done this before
nicely.

<h2>
Matthew Kennedy (Waterloo)
</h2>

mid-career superstar in operator algebras that has re-energized several sub-disciplines by (very) successfully using ideas from “non-commutative analysis” to solve long-standing problems in group theory and dynamical systems. Excellent speaker.
Cutting edge in field

<h2>Igor Klep (Ljubljana)</h2>

mid-career superstar that has been involved in a kind of revolution in “real algebraic geometry” by exploiting a higher form of convexity (matrix convexity). Excellent Speaker. Cutting edge in field.

<h2>Tom Ransford (Laval)</h2>

tier 1 CRC in complex analysis and spectral theory.
Excellent speaker

<h2>
Andres Navas
</h2>

ICM Speaker. http://www.mat.usach.cl/index.php/2012-12-19-12-50-19/academicos/75-andres-navas-flores

<h2>
Emilie Purvine
</h2>

Home page: https://www.pnnl.gov/people/emilie-purvine

Quanta Article: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-big-data-carried-graph-theory-into-new-dimensions-20210819/

<h2>
Lucy Campbell
</h2>

Home page: https://people.math.carleton.ca/~campbell/

<h2>
Carlos Kenig (Chicago)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Kenig

<h2>
Luis Caffarelli (Austin)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Caffarelli

<h2>
Carolyn Colijn (SFU)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Colijn

<h2>
Julia Wolf (Cambridge)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Wolf

<h2>
Bryna Kra (Northwestern)
</h2>

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryna_Kra

<h1>
Meeting notes
</h1>

Amie Dynamics
Tao/Gowers/Kennedy Analysis
Vazquez Mathematics DNA modelling
Harris Alg Combs
Olver Numerical Analysis
Wood/Ellengerg Alg # theory