What did you think of the symposium?
FMS Blogger Richard Cerezo (by Luke Chang)
The inaugural Fields Medal Symposium has taken a good amount of running around on my part and I did not get a chance to do what I love doing, writing about math! Well I’ve been able to get things organized and develop a few new ways of keeping track of lectures and other things, thanks to the Fields Institute’s new Live video system. I was able to record the majority of talks using screen capture software.
In the coming days and weeks I will be reviewing these videos and making detailed posts about each lecture, so you can definitely look forward to that. But for now, you can check the Facebook page for photos (you don’t need Facebook to do this),
Click here to view Fields Medal Symposium photos by Richard Cerezo
Some quick impressions before they escape me. The FMS is the highlight of the 20th year anniversary of the Fields Institute and it truly marks a step forward into the next level of Fields Medal recognition. I have been involved with the institute for a number of years now and I have not been as motivated to learn new things as I currently feel.
Interacting with experts in many different fields and working with various members of the Fields staff has brought a certain kind of optimism to my perspective of the mathematical community. In particular, speaking with Ngô Bảo Châu, Edward Frenkel, James Arthur, and Peter Woit has given me the inspiration to continue doing what I do. Discovering mathematics, regardless of its newness or difficulty, strikes one’s innermost sense of curiosity. The ease of mathematical expression that I’ve witnessed during the week has shown me that these structures and ways of thinking are very natural if looked at properly. I hope this will come across in the video interview that I conducted with Ngô Bảo Châu, which should be ready in a week or so. I also hope this will translate nicely into blog posts about the mathematical talks.
I should note that it has been extremely rewarding to have been part of the organizing team. Seeing a full room of excited participants and getting questions from online participants is what kept us pushing harder and harder to make this the best week ever. I’m happy to say that we’ve gone far beyond our expectations!
What did you think of the symposium? Leave some comments for us!
-RJC
