Simons Foundation Lectures
251 episodes · showing the newest 200
1 hr 9 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/lsstc-data-science-fellowship-program/Uploaded 31-10-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 3 min
Part of the beauty of mathematics is the interplay between its different branches. In this lecture, Maxim Kontsevich will talk about a recent discovery of an unexpected relation between questions in birational algebraic geometry and the theory of automorphic forms. Computer experiments with an easy-looking system of equations played an essential role in the discovery.More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/from-equivariant-blow-ups-to-modular-symbols/Uploaded 19-11-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
49 min
The Subspace Flatness ConjectureThe covering radius $\mu(\Lambda,K)$ of a convex body $K \subseteq \setR^n$ with respect to a full rank lattice $\Lambda \subseteq \setR^n$ is the minimum scaling needed so that translates of $K$ placed at every lattice point cover the whole $\setR^n$. A question going back to work of Kannan and Lov\'asz (1988) is how well the covering radius is described solely by the volume of $K$ and the density of the lattice, after projecting both into a suitable subspace. We report on significant progress on this question due to Regev and Stephens-Davidowitz (2016) who resolve this problem for ellipsoids and Reis and Rothvoss (2023) who cover the general case. We also survey applications of these results that give near-optimal bounds on the flatness constant as well as a $(\log n)^{O(n)}$-time algorithm for solving $n$-variable integer programs, following work of Dadush (2012). This is based on joint work with Victor Reis.Uploaded 06-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
40 min
Topological transition transforms common superconductivity into an exotic phase of matter, which holds promise for fault-tolerant quantum computing. A hallmark of this transition is the emergence of Majorana states. While two-dimensional semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures are desirable platforms for topological superconductivity, direct phase measurements as the fingerprint of the underlying topological transition are conspicuously missing. On gate tunable Josephson junctions made on epitaxial Al/InAs, we observe a closing and a reopening of the superconducting gap with increasing in-plane magnetic field. Since our junctions are embedded into a phase-sensitive SQUID, we are able to measure a π-jump in the superconducting phase across the junction coincident with the closing and reopening of the superconducting gap. Theoretical simulations confirm this transition is topological and compatible with the emergence of Majorana states while the magnetic field angle dependence of the transition further constrain this scenario. Remarkably, in each junction, this topological transition can be controlled by changing the gate voltage. These findings reveal versatile two-dimensional platforms for scalable topological quantum computing.More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/qclub-seminar-matthieu-dartiailh/Uploaded 22-11-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min
Created by Old Bridge Media:John Hubbell - Creative Director, Writer and Senior ProducerLance Murphey – Cinematographer, Field Director and EditorMeredith Hogan - ProducerJennifer Smart – Editor and IllustratorJonathan Kirkscey – ComposerKevin House - Audio EngineerUploaded 07-09-18Executive Producer:Philip Yam, Simons FoundationOpening Graphics:AST Studios© 2018 International Mathematical Union Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 3 min
Conflicts and synergies between individuality and collective behaviorCells live in communities where they interact with each other and their environment. By coordinating individuals, such interactions often result in collective behavior that emerges on scales larger than the individuals that are beneficial to the population. At the same time, populations of individuals, even isogenicones, display phenotypic heterogeneity, which diversifies individual behavior and enhances the resilience of the population in unexpected situations. This raises a dilemma: although individuality provides advantages, it also tends to reduce coordination. I will report on our recent experimental and theoretical efforts that use bacterial chemotaxis as model system to understand, the origin of individual cellular behavior and performance, and how populations of cells reconciliate individuality with group behavior.More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/ccb-colloquium-thierry-emonet/Uploaded 25-11-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
50 min
A Combinatorial Ride from Macdonald Polynomials to Schubert Calculus and BackWhen I started my Ph.D., I had never even heard of combinatorics. Adriano Garsia and Jeff Remmel eagerly stepped in and taught me that it is the study of a remarkable family of symmetric functions called Macdonald polynomials. By the time I discovered that their definition was not universally accepted, I had already been thoroughly indoctrinated. In this talk, I will share the Garsia–Remmel lessons, along with the story of how decades of playing with Young tableaux led to the development of a combinatorial architecture that underlies both these Macdonald polynomials and a branch of algebraic geometry known as Schubert calculus.Uploaded 06-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
53 min
RNA-sequencing offers the possibility to analyze the expression of all genes in a sample. However, the spatial information of gene expression is lost. In the pioneering work, a method was described that allowed studies of gene expression in tissue sections using RNA-sequencing to uncover transcriptional patterns in situ (Ståhl et al, Science, 2016). The basic concept is remarkably simple; by placing tissue sections on arrayed reverse transcription oligonucleotides with positional barcodes, cDNA for RNA-sequencing can be generated with maintained positional information within the tissue. The quality of the obtained cDNA libraries is as high as with the best protocols for homogenized tissue. Applying this strategy has been demonstrated to work remarkably well and allows visualizing and quantifying the transcriptome in regular histological tissue sections, i.e. tissue domains can be matched to precise gene expression patterns. Furthermore, data-driven methods can be applied to discover in an unsupervised manner transcriptomic patterns in space. Such patterns correspond to cell-types, microenvironments, or tissue components that allows for novel avenues of research.More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/ccb-colloquium-joakim-lunderberg/Uploaded 25-11-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
58 min
Identifying the DNA changes that underlie phenotypic adaptations is a key challenge in genomics and evolutionary biology. In the first part of the talk, I will address the fate of cis-regulatory elements in snakes that lost limbs and in subterranean mammals that have degenerated eyes. By combining genome sequencing and functional genomics with comparative analyses, we identified thousands of non-coding genomic regions that exhibit higher sequence divergence specifically in these lineages. We found that these diverged genomic regions often correspond to limb- and eye-specific regulatory elements and that sequence divergence resulted in an extensive loss of relevant transcription factor binding sites. Overall this reveals a genome-wide picture of the non-coding genomic changes involved in limb loss and eye degeneration. In the second part, I will present our work on investigating the role of gene inactivation (loss) for adaptive evolution in mammals. By developing a genomics approach to accurately detect gene-inactivating mutations and applying it to the genomes of 60 mammals, we discovered a number of lineage-specific as well as convergent gene losses that likely contribute to adaptations of different mammals to life in water or dietary specializations.More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/ccb-colloquium-michael-hiller/Uploaded 25-11-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 min
Chapter 1, "Platonic Solids." Watch the complete interview at http://www.simonsfoundation.org/science_lives_video/egbert-brieskorn/Uploaded 30-01-15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
48 min
Causal Structure and Representation Learning with Biomedical ApplicationsMassive data collection holds the promise of a better understanding of complex phenomena and, ultimately, better decisions. Representation learning has become a key driver of deep learning applications, as it allows learning latent spaces that capture important properties of the data without requiring any supervised annotations. Although representation learning has been hugely successful in predictive tasks, it can fail miserably in causal tasks including predicting the effect of a perturbation/intervention. This calls for a marriage between representation learning and causal inference. An exciting opportunity in this regard stems from the growing availability of multi-modal data (observational and perturbational, imaging-based and sequencing-based, at the single-cell level, tissue-level, and organism-level). We outline a statistical and computational framework for causal structure and representation learning motivated by fundamental biomedical questions: how to effectively use observational and perturbational data to perform causal discovery on observed causal variables; how to use multi-modal views of the system to learn causal variables; and how to design optimal perturbations.Uploaded 05-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
3 hr 4 min
This 2-day tutorial allowed participants to prepare for the WFIRST Exoplanet Imaging Data Challenge. More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/wfirst-exoplanet-imaging-data-challenge-tutorial/Uploaded 05-12-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
40 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/nyc-computational-cryo-em-summer-workshop/Uploaded 26-08-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
48 min
BPS Cohomology in Geometry and Representation TheoryWe motivate and survey the theory of BPS invariants of categories and BPS cohomology of stacks, indicating applications in enumerative geometry and representation theory, as well as recent advances.Uploaded 06-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 hr 1 min
This 2-day tutorial allowed participants to prepare for the WFIRST Exoplanet Imaging Data Challenge. More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/wfirst-exoplanet-imaging-data-challenge-tutorial/Uploaded 05-12-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 6 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/cca-colloquium-rosalba-perna/Uploaded 03-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min
Watch the rest of Yuri Manin's profile at https://www.simonsfoundation.org/science_lives_video/yuri-manin/Uploaded 20-04-15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
43 min
Unramified Automorphic FormsWe will discuss recent progress on understanding everywhere unramified automorphic forms over function fields. The main application, joint with D. Gaitsgory and V. Lafforgue, is a proof of the Arthur-Ramanujan conjecture in this setting, , which describes the magnitudes of Hecke eigenvalues of cusp forms. This is ultimately obtained as a consequence of the geometric Langlands conjecture for D-modules in characteristic 0. In this talk, we will give an introduction to this circle of ideas.Uploaded 06-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
59 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/cca-colloquium-jess-werk/Uploaded 03-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min
Musical chords naturally inhabit certain topological spaces, which show the possible paths that a composer can use to move between chords.Uploaded 22-05-14http://www.simonsfoundation.org/multimedia/mathematical-impressions-making-music-with-a-mobius-strip/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 4 min
The logarithm of the characteristic polynomial of CβE matrices, viewed as a function on the unit circle in the complex plane, is a logarithmically correlated field. Ofer Zeitouni will describe joint work with Elliot Paquette, where we prove that properly centered, the maximum of this field converges to the sum of a Gumbel random variable and an independent random variable Z, thus validating a famous conjecture of Fyodorov–Hiary–Keating. If time permits, Zeitouni will describe recent work identifying the random variable ZUploaded 28-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
49 min
The Future of Prediction: in Conversation with Oskar MorgensternA century ago, economist Oskar Morgenstern studied what he called one of the most central and most difficult problems in the theory of prediction: predictions that actively influence outcomes. Self-fulfilling and self-negating prophecies are two extreme cases of a fundamental problem that arises with all predictions about social outcomes. People act on predictions in ways that change the course of events, a phenomenon called performativity. Morgenstern argued that performativity doomed prediction in the social world to guesswork with unforeseeable results. This talk gives an entry point to the emerging area of performative prediction that provides counterpoints to Morgenstern's pessimistic prophecy. The standard formulation of machine learning as risk minimization assumes a fixed data-generating distribution. Performative prediction extends risk minimization toward data-generating distributions that depend on the predictive model. This extension leads to the powerful algorithmic principle of repeated risk minimization, alternating risk minimization and model deployment indefinitely. Under suitable conditions, repeated risk minimization converges to a stable point, a kind of equilibrium at which the predictive model minimizes risk on the distribution it entails. We'll discuss three perspectives on performativity using ideas from economic modeling, optimization, and the theory of forecasting that contribute principled ways to reason about predictions that influences outcomes.Uploaded 06-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 11 min
Simulations of cosmic structure formation have come a long way. Nowadays, they are not only accurately predicting the dark matter backbone of the cosmic web and the internal structure of halos and their satellites far into the non-linear regime, but are also capable of following the baryonic sector with rapidly improving physical fidelity. In my talk, I will review the methodology and selected successes of recent hydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations, and critically discuss some of the primary uncertainties in modelling strong, scale-dependent feedback processes. I will also highlight predictions for the structure of magnetic fields in galaxies and the importance of cosmic rays in galaxy evolution. Finally, I discuss some of the challenges lying ahead in this field in the coming years. More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/cca-colloquium-volker-springel/Uploaded 03-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 2 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
11 min
A sculpture project built entirely with right angles combines math and art in subtle and surprising ways.Uploaded 22-05-14http://www.simonsfoundation.org/multimedia/geometry-of-spaghetti-code/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 12 min
Watch this informational webinar to learn about the Simons Foundation’s 2027 Fellows-to-Faculty Award program, a funding opportunity for senior postdocs and early-career scientists heading into the faculty job market.The program aims to nurture new talent and broaden the community of researchers contributing to the missions of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB), and the Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience (SCENE).Uploaded 23-10-26For more information please visit: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/autism-neuroscience/fellows-to-faculty/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 13 min
Supernovae (SNe) and Long-duration Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are exploding stars and constitute the most powerful explosions in the universe. Since they are visible over large cosmological distances, release elements heavier than Helium, and leave behind extreme remnants such as black holes, they are fascinating objects, as well as crucial tools for many areas of astrophysics, including cosmology.Uploaded 03-01-20However, for many years the fundamental question of which stellar systems give rise to which kinds of explosions has remained outstanding: for Type Ia SNe used for cosmology as well as for Superluminous SNe and long-duration GRBs that must originate from special kinds of massive stars. I will discuss the exciting recent progress that we have made on this question in key areas by publishing and thoroughly analyzing the largest data sets in the world at the time. I will conclude with an outlook on how the most promising avenues of research – using the existing and upcoming innovative large time-domain surveys such as ZTF and LSST – will shed new light on the diverse deaths of stars. More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/cca-colloquium-maryam-modjaz/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
42 min
Energy Lagrangian Flows for Singular SPDEs and ApplicationsEnergy Lagrangian flows are a formulation of the Lagrangian flows of Di Perna-Lions and their stochastic counterparts by Le Bris-Lions and Figalli in the setting of singular stochastic dynamics, partly in regimes where classical and pathwise theories break down. A key notion is "probabilistic subcriticality": even for scaling critical or supercritical equations, regularity of the law combined with coercivity of the generator may yield existence and uniqueness. I will outline the construction and well-posedness results, the relation to pathwise constructions, and applications to hydrodynamics and numerical analysis.Uploaded 05-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 16 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/luck-law-and-baseball-two-stories-about-sports-and-data/Uploaded 30-09-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 0 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min
A nice mathematical puzzle, with a solution anyone can understand, is to determine the direction a bicycle went when you come upon its tracks. The answer involves thinking about tangent lines, geometric constraints and the bicycle's steering mechanism.Uploaded 22-05-14http://www.simonsfoundation.org/multimedia/mathematical-impressions-bicycle-tracks/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 9 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 5 min
In this Presidential Lecture, Shep Doeleman will present the first results and the future directions of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The EHT is a global array of radio dishes that successfully imaged the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy and the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, both of which exhibit the predicted strong gravitational lensing. Subsequent observations have revealed ordered magnetic fields on horizon scales with implications for how black holes launch relativistic jets of material. What’s next? The next-generation EHT (ngEHT) is a project to expand the EHT in several ways, enabling full-color, high-definition movies of black holes to pursue the next big questions.Uploaded 26-10-26For more information please visit: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/events/taking-pictures-and-making-movies-of-supermassive-black-holes/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 3 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min
Can you combine simple observations and mathematical thinking to show that atoms exist?Uploaded 22-05-14http://www.simonsfoundation.org/multimedia/attesting-to-atoms/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 33 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
59 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 32 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
58 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
39 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/nyc-computational-cryo-em-summer-workshop/Uploaded 26-08-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2 hr 1 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
59 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 15 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
55 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 46 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
58 min
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/simons-collaboration-on-moduli-of-varieties-annual-meeting-2025/2025 Annual Meeting of the Simons Collaboration on Moduli of VarietiesSimons FoundationOctober 2-3, 2025Uploaded 27-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 45 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
46 min
Toward Criteria for the K-Stability of Fano ManifoldsUploaded 05-10-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
59 min
2025 Mathematical and Scientific Foundations of Deep Learning Annual Meetinghttps://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/mathematical-and-scientific-foundations-of-deep-learning-annual-meeting-2025/Uploaded 22-10-25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 10 min
More details: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/event/universality-turbulence-across-vast-scales-598-766/Uploaded 10-01-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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