Professor Alessio Corti, Chair in Pure Mathemactics, will present his Inaugural Lecture: ‘What is Algebraic Geometry?’
Abstract: In this lecture, I will try to answer the question: ‘What is Algebraic Geometry?, using (mostly) undergraduate mathematics. A distinguishing feature of algebraic geometry is the possibility of doing exact calculations with explicit examples. By discussing the simplest examples, I want to give a sense of the central position of algebraic geometry in mathematics and its direct applications to other types of geometry, mathematical physics, differential equations and especially number theory. Looking from the point of view of algebraic geometry allows one to draw analogies between different areas of mathematics which are the source of useful exchanges of ideas. I will begin with familiar things on plane conics and move on to plane cubics and elliptic integrals. I will discuss the simplest examples from classification theory, motives, number theory, differential equations and Gromov-Witten theory.
Biography: Professor Corti was an undergraduate in Pisa, Italy, and obtained his PhD from the University of Utah. He held junior positions at MSRI,
Berkeley, and the University of Chicago, before joining the faculty of the University of Cambridge as a Lecturer. He recently moved to Imperial College London where he works in Algebraic Geometry, particularly the geometry of higher dimensional Fano varieties.
Chair: Professor John Elgin, Professor of Applied Mathematics
Vote of Thanks: Professor Miles A. Reid FRS, Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick
A pre lecture tea will be served in the Senior Common Room from 16.45.