A roulette with curves and surfaces
Abstract
If you need to choose between two equal options, you can toss a coin. If you need to choose between six of them, you roll a dice. If your life decisions have more facets, you can ask for help from a roulette. We all know what it means to uniformly randomly pick a number from one to ten, or to open the book from a random spot. But what does it mean to pick a random curve, or a random surface? How do such objects look like, are they beautiful? And why should we care about these random objects, why should we care, at all?
Bio:
Juhan Aru was born in Estonia, has bachelor and master degrees in mathematics from University of Cambridge and a master's degree in interdisciplinary life sciences from Université Paris Descartes. He obtained his PhD in mathematics from ENS Lyon, and spent three years as a post-doc in ETH Zurich. In January 2019 he joined EPFL as a tenure-track assistant professor in mathematics.
He is interested in how to mathematically describe and study systems where geometric structure and randomness interact. The mathematical field studying such phenomena lies at the interface of probability theory, analysis and mathematical physics. More precisely, he studies random curves (SLE curves), height functions (Gaussian free field) and other random geometric structures (e.g. Gaussian multiplicative chaos), often with roots in the phenomena of
statistical physics.
He has also done some work in neurosciences, written a mathematics book for high-school students and has taken part in constructing a computer-based statistics curriculum for high schools.
If you need to choose between two equal options, you can toss a coin. If you need to choose between six of them, you roll a dice. If your life decisions have more facets, you can ask for help from a roulette. We all know what it means to uniformly randomly pick a number from one to ten, or to open the book from a random spot. But what does it mean to pick a random curve, or a random surface? How do such objects look like, are they beautiful? And why should we care about these random objects, why should we care, at all?
Bio:
Juhan Aru was born in Estonia, has bachelor and master degrees in mathematics from University of Cambridge and a master's degree in interdisciplinary life sciences from Université Paris Descartes. He obtained his PhD in mathematics from ENS Lyon, and spent three years as a post-doc in ETH Zurich. In January 2019 he joined EPFL as a tenure-track assistant professor in mathematics.
He is interested in how to mathematically describe and study systems where geometric structure and randomness interact. The mathematical field studying such phenomena lies at the interface of probability theory, analysis and mathematical physics. More precisely, he studies random curves (SLE curves), height functions (Gaussian free field) and other random geometric structures (e.g. Gaussian multiplicative chaos), often with roots in the phenomena of
statistical physics.
He has also done some work in neurosciences, written a mathematics book for high-school students and has taken part in constructing a computer-based statistics curriculum for high schools.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Dean of the School of Basic Sciences, Jan S. Hesthaven
Contact
- Hélène Laurens