Michael Harris Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University Michael Harris is Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University; before that he held positions at Brandeis University and Université Paris-Diderot. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1977 from Harvard University, under the direction of Barry Mazur. He has organized or co-organized more than 20 conferences, workshops, and special programs in his field of number theory. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Bethlehem University in Palestine and a National Academy of Sciences Exchange Scholar at the Steklov Institute in Moscow. His book Mathematics without Apologies won the 2016 PROSE award in Mathematics from the Association of American Publishers, and he currently has a Substack newsletter entitled “Silicon Reckoner.” He is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France, the Academia Europaea, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. For his contributions to the Langlands program he obtained the Grand Prix Sophie Germain de l’Académie des Sciences in 2006; in 2007 he shared the Clay Research Award with Richard Taylor. Participant In: The Beauty and Unity of Mathematics Saturday, December 1st, 2018 at 2:30pm Past Event Watch the video » Proof, in the form of step by step deduction, following the rules of logical reasoning, is the ultimate test of validity in mathematics. Some proofs, however, are so long or complex, or both, that they cannot be checked for errors by human experts. In response, a small but growing community of mathematicians, collaborating with computer… read more » Mechanization of Math Saturday, October 5th, 2019 at 2:30pm Past Event Watch the video » Proof, in the form of step by step deduction, following the rules of logical reasoning, is the ultimate test of validity in mathematics. Some proofs, however, are so long or complex, or both, that they cannot be checked for errors by human experts. In response, a small but growing community of mathematicians, collaborating with computer… read more » Mathematics and Other Realities Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 2:30pm Past Event Watch the video » The question of what the world in which we live consists of is as old as mankind itself. In philosophical jargon, this is the question of the ontological basis of reality. With the growing success of physics and other sciences, the idea of one fundamental ontology, that of particles and fields, became dominant as a… read more » Permanence and Impermanence of Mathematical Concepts October 21st, 2023 at 2:30pm EST Past Event Watch the video » What do you think of when you think of the number five? Do you think of symbol like 5, a pattern like ⁙, or the fifth item on a list? Today, the concept of number is fixed and eternal, unlinked to anything in the universe. But history shows that mathematics is anything but fixed. In… read more »
The Beauty and Unity of Mathematics Saturday, December 1st, 2018 at 2:30pm Past Event Watch the video » Proof, in the form of step by step deduction, following the rules of logical reasoning, is the ultimate test of validity in mathematics. Some proofs, however, are so long or complex, or both, that they cannot be checked for errors by human experts. In response, a small but growing community of mathematicians, collaborating with computer… read more »
Mechanization of Math Saturday, October 5th, 2019 at 2:30pm Past Event Watch the video » Proof, in the form of step by step deduction, following the rules of logical reasoning, is the ultimate test of validity in mathematics. Some proofs, however, are so long or complex, or both, that they cannot be checked for errors by human experts. In response, a small but growing community of mathematicians, collaborating with computer… read more »
Mathematics and Other Realities Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 2:30pm Past Event Watch the video » The question of what the world in which we live consists of is as old as mankind itself. In philosophical jargon, this is the question of the ontological basis of reality. With the growing success of physics and other sciences, the idea of one fundamental ontology, that of particles and fields, became dominant as a… read more »
Permanence and Impermanence of Mathematical Concepts October 21st, 2023 at 2:30pm EST Past Event Watch the video » What do you think of when you think of the number five? Do you think of symbol like 5, a pattern like ⁙, or the fifth item on a list? Today, the concept of number is fixed and eternal, unlinked to anything in the universe. But history shows that mathematics is anything but fixed. In… read more »