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| World-renowned mathematician Prof. Shing-Tung Yau will give a talk on “string theory and the geometry of the universe’ hidden dimensions” at UM next Saturday. |
World-renowned mathematician Prof. Shing-Tung Yau will give a talk on “string theory and the geometry of the universe’ hidden dimensions”, which is part of the 30th Anniversary Lecture Series, at the University of Macau (UM) next Saturday (3 December). Prof. Yau is recipient of the Wolf Prize Laureate in Mathematics in 2010 and the Fields Medal in 1982, which is the world’s most prestigious prize in mathematics.
String theory assumes that spacetime has ten dimensions overall. The three large spatial dimensions that we’re familiar with, plus time, make up the four-dimensional spacetime of Einstein’s theory. But there are also six additional dimensions hidden away in Calabi-Yau space. During the talk, Prof. Yau will introduce the audience to the history of geometry through his first-hand experiences in the field. He will discuss how mathematicians think and approach the world. He will help the audience realize that mathematics does not have to be a wholly abstract discipline, disconnected from everyday phenomena, but is instead crucial to our understanding of the physical world. He will also talk about how mathematics and physics can come together to the benefit of both fields, particularly in the case of Calabi-Yau spaces and string theory.
Prof. Yau has made fundamental contributions to differential geometry, uncovering deep intrinsic geometric structures in an astonishingly wide range of scientific disciplines like differential geometry, algebraic geometry, topology, partial differential equations, general relativity and string theory. In 1976 he proved Calabi's conjecture on a class of manifolds now named Calabi-Yau manifolds, which has now become the geometric ground on which physicists build their string theory. His new method of studying global differential equations is so powerful that it has had a seminal influence on general relativity. Prof. Yau is recognized as one of the world’s most influential mathematicians under the age of fifty.
Prof. Yau received his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where his advisor was Shiing-Shen Chern. He has received numerous international awards in mathematics. He is currently the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics and the chairman of the Mathematics Department at Harvard University. He is a foreign member of the National Academy of Lincei, Italy, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. He has received honorary doctorates from numerous universities, including Harvard, National Taiwan University, Zhejiang University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and UM (in 2002).
The talk will take place at UM’s Cultural Centre on 3 December (Saturday) at 15:00. It will be conducted in Cantonese, with simultaneous interpretation into English. Please visit https://isw.um.edu.mo/styau/ for on-line registration. For enquiries, please call 83974339.
Should you have any query, please feel free to contact Ms. Albee Lei at（853）8397 4325 or albeelei@um.edu.mo or visit UM webpage www.umac.mo.
