Hot Topic
163 news
-
2018-12-13
Hot Topic
Snapshot of a Discussion
iTHEMS members have discussions not only on natural science and mathematical science but also on social science and history. Here is a snapshot of a discussion on ancient history of China by Yongjia Huang and Hiro Nagataki at our common room 246-248 on Nov.30, 2018.
-
2018-12-13
Hot Topic
The RIKEN-NTU Workshop on Recent Developments of Chiral Matter and Topology
The RIKEN-NTU Workshop on Recent Developments of Chiral Matter and Topology was held at Centre for Theoretical Physics in National Taiwan Univ. (NTU). on Dec.6-9, 2018. There were about 80 participants both from particle/nuclear physics and condensed matter physics from Japan, Taiwan, China, and US. There were about 30 scientific talks with very stimulating discussions on chirality and topology from low-energies to high-energies. From RIKEN, A. Furusaki (CPR/CEMS), Y. Hidaka (RNC/iTHEMS), M. Hongo (iTHEMS), N. Nagaosa (CEMS), T. Ozawa (iTHEMS) and T. Hatsuda (iTHEMS) gave talks. The workshop was held in the new building "NTU Cosmology Hall" which was just completed at the north end of the NTU campus in Taipei.
-
2018-11-27
Hot Topic
iTHEMS-Kyushu WS - from particles and nuclei to cosmos -
On Nov.21-22, 2018, iTHEMS-Kyushu WS - from particles and nuclei to cosmos - was held at iTHEMS Kobe office (SUURI-COOL Kobe). About 20 researchers got together from iTHEMS and Kyushu Univ. to discuss various aspects of quantum many-body theory, quantum field theory and explosive astrophysical phenomena in a very relaxed atmosphere. We will continue to organize such intensive workshop between iTHEMS and Kyushu Univ. in various fields of mathematical sciences in the future.
-
2018-11-12
Hot TopicThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Frances H Arnold for “the directed evolution of enzymes”, and jointly to George P Smith and Gregory P Winter for “the phage display of peptides and antibodies”. A major goal in chemistry is to develop new proteins, such as enzymes or antibodies. A protein is typically a string of hundreds or thousands of amino acids linked together that fold up in three-dimensional structures. Because there are 20 kinds of amino acids, the possible number of proteins (i.e. combination of amino acids) one can design is astronomical, and most of them don’t work. Both studies succeeded in developing a method to develop proteins based on a similar principle. Instead of trying to logically design a particular protein based on existing knowledge, they adopted the principle of evolution. Basically, first, they create several new proteins by introducing random mutations to existing proteins. Next, they select the best performing proteins and then introduce a new round of random mutations to create several new proteins. After a few cycles, a new protein that is much more effective than the original one can be obtained. This principle is the same as in the evolutionary or genetic algorithms used in machine learning. Who knows, maybe there are other problems the principle of evolution can be applied to!?!?
-
2018-10-25
Hot Topic
Coffee Meeting on Oct.19
At the weekly coffee meeting on Oct.19(Fri.), Hiroki Kodama (AIMR/iTHEMS) gave a nice explanation on the properties of "flat functions" which often appear in mathematics and physics. He also told us an interesting story about the reference in the arXiv paper below.
-
2018-10-11
Hot Topic
Coffee Meeting on Oct. 5
At the weekly coffee meeting on Oct.5 (Fri.), we enjoyed lots of good sweets from all over the world after a nice 15 min. talk by Chacha san (iTHEMS) on "A unique pair of triangles".
-
2018-09-03
Hot Topic
The Black Coffee and Dr. Hawking
A short essay "Black coffee and Dr. Hawking" (in Japanese) by Yuki Yokokura (iTHEMS) was published in RIKEN News (vol.446, 2018). Similarity and difference between the black coffee and the black hole is explained in plain terms. Please enjoy!
-
2018-08-28
Hot Topic
iTHEMS Coffee Meeting is held on every Friday
iTHEMS Coffee Meeting is held on every Friday from 12:30- at our common room. From this fiscal year, we have changed the style of the short talk at the coffee meeting. The speaker will give a 15 min. talk only using blackboard without taking questions. The talk could be a scientific problem that the speaker is facing and wants to ask advise, an interdisciplinary scientific proposal that the speaker wants to form a collaboration, an elementary introduction to a particular topic or notion, etc. So far, this new attempt is working very well. For example, the speaker last week (Aug.24) was Gen Kurosawa who gave a talk “On the unsolved mystery of biological clock”. He posed unsolved questions on biological clock which induced lots of questions and discussions by the iTHEMS members after his talk. As usual, we have nice cookies and candies brought from all over the world by the iTHEMS members and coffee/tea/soft-drinks prepared by iTHEMS assistants. Thanks all for supporting the coffee meeting!
-
2018-08-14
Hot Topic
International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) held at Rio de Janeiro, Brasil on August 1 - 4
On the first day August 1, 2018 of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) held at Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, the Fields Medals were awarded to the following four mathematicians. Caucher Birkar: For the proof of the boundedness of Fano varieties and for contributions to the minimal model program. Alessio Figalli: For contributions to the theory of optimal transport and its applications in partial differential equations, metric geometry and probability. Peter Scholze: For transforming arithmetic algebraic geometry over p-adic fields through his introduction of perfectoid spaces, with application to Galois representations, and for the development of new cohomology theories. Akshay Venkatesh: For his synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology, and representation theory, which has resolved long-standing problems in areas such as the equidistribution of arithmetic objects. At the same time, the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize was awarded to Constantinos Daskalakis: For transforming our understanding of the computational complexity of fundamental problems in markets, auctions, equilibria, and other economic structures. His work provides both efficient algorithms and limits on what can be performed efficiently in these domains. You might know that the Fields Medal of Caucher Birkar was stolen just after the celemony and he was given the medal again on August 4. On August 4, the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize was awarded to David L. Donoho: For his fundamental contributions to the mathematical, statistical and computational analysis of important problems in signal processing. On August 4, the Chern Medal Award was given to Masaki Kashiwara (the photo above) : For his outstanding and foundational contributions to algebraic analysis and representation theory sustained over a period of almost 50 years. On August 9, Leelavati Prize 2018 was awarded to Ali Nesin: For his outstanding contributions towards increasing public awareness of mathematics in Turkey, in particular for his tireless work in creating the "Mathematical Village" as an exceptional, peaceful place for education, research and the exploration of mathematics for anyone. The 2018 ICM Emmy Noether Lecturer is Sung-Yung Alice Chang for her leading contributions to harmonic analysis, geometric analysis, differential geometry and partial differential equations. The lecture was given on August 3 and the award was given after the lecture.
-
2018-07-09
Hot Topic
A first joint meeting between iCeMS (Kyoto Univ.) and iTHEMS on interdisciplinary biology was held on July 4
On July 4, a first joint meeting between iCeMS (Kyoto Univ.) and iTHEMS on interdisciplinary biology was held at the 2nd floor of the Maskawa building in Kyoto Univ. After the welcome address by Prof. Shigefumi Mori (Director of KUIAS, Kyoto Univ. and the science advisor of iTHEMS) followed by the introductions to iCeMS and iTHEMS, there were 8 talks on experimental and theoretical studies on biology from both institutes. It turned out that all 8 talks were extremely interesting and stimulating for more than 40 participants from Kyoto Univ. and RIKEN. There were many questions and discussions during the talks and at the coffee breaks. We were very much excited about the fruitful interactions between experimentalists and theorists, so that we expect to have the 2nd joint workshop in the near future. All the slides can be seen from the workshop web page.
-
2018-06-18
Hot Topic
The Journalist in Residence Workshop was held from June 1 to June 4
From June 1 to June 4, Journalist in Residence Workshop was held at Tambara Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the University of Tokyo, located in a high-plain nature park 1,200 meters above sea level and 140 kilometers north of Tokyo. The "Journalist in Residence (JIR)" program in Mathematics started in 2010 with the support of the Mathematical Society of Japan. By the program, journalists in a broad sense stay at major math departments and institutes in Japan and talk to people (professors, students, visitors, librarians), attend seminars and conferences. The program aims to enhance the relationships between mathematicians and the general public. Then Journalist in Residence Workshop started in 2011 aiming to exchange information of JIR in different institutes among the participants as well as among host institutions. The workshop also fuctions as outreach of institutions. RIKEN iTHEMS began hosting this workshop from last year. This year, there were 10 journarists and 11 participants from RIKEN, 6 from universities and 3 from others. Young participants of RIKEN iTHEMS mainly explained their recent important achievements to the nonspecialists and matured participants explained thier experiences on academic journalism. The whether during the JIR workshop of this year was very nice and the participants hiked together around the Tambara marsh and the Tambara lake. The disscussion among the participants continued with joy until late in the evening.
-
2018-04-23
Hot Topic
iTHEMS participated RIKEN’s open-day on April 21
For the first time, iTHEMS participated RIKEN’s open-day last Saturday. Six researchers from iTHEMS gave short lectures for the public at our seminar room in Japanese. Those were: Tomoki Ozawa on Mathematics bridges classical and quantum physics; Jeffery Fawcett on deciphering the enigma of life; Yuki Yokokura on physics of black holes; Yoshiyuki Inoue on the observation of black holes; Takashi Okada on the network in life science; Masato Taki on Do AIs dream of electric sheep? The event was huge success. Every lecture attracted more audience than we can fit in the seminar room. Next year, we should do the lectures in a larger room. Thank you all the lecturers, especially Taki-san and Yokokura-san who arranged the event.
-
2018-04-10
Hot Topic
iTHEMS Starter Meeting for FY2018 on April 6, 2018
More than 50 researchers from various disciplines (biology, physics, astronomy, mathematics, information science, computational science) got together and self-introduced each other at the iTHEMS common room 246-248 on April 6 12:30-15:00. There were also participants from Kobe and Kyoto through internet. Great enthusiasm to interact with each other could be seen already in this starter meeting, which forecasts a bright future of iTHEMS!
163 news