Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Commemorates 20 Years with Special Presentations and a Film Series

By Genevieve Shiffrar

October 16, 2002

In the hills above the Berkeley campus, eucalyptus and cedars create a shimmering earth-toned curtain to frame the majestic views from a subtle yet elegant building. This is the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), where mathematicians from around the world gather to explore together the most significant questions in their fields. Opening its doors in 1982, MSRI now hosts over 1300 mathematical scientists a year to participate in programs, workshops, and postdoctoral training. The institute celebrates its 20th anniversary this month with a series of public lectures and a film series, all of broad interest to the general public.

Although the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), it is connected in many ways to Berkeley's Department of Mathematics. In fact, three Berkeley Mathematics faculty members submitted the original successful funding proposal to the NSF in 1979: Shiing-Shen Chern, Calvin Moore and I. M. Singer. Since then, 430 Berkeley faculty and students have registered and participated in MSRI programs and workshops. Berkeley faculty have also been deeply involved in the direction of MSRI activities, contributing 47 of its program organizers and 34 of its workshop organizers.

On Tuesday, October 22nd, Sir Michael Atiyah will speak at the 20th Anniversary Joint MSRI/UC Berkeley Colloquium, the first of three free presentations. A recipient of the Fields Medal in 1966, the highest prize in mathematics, Sir Atiyah was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, President of the Royal Society, Director of the Newton Institute, and Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University. His talk is entitled "Projective planes, spheres and Severi varieties." (10 Evans Hall, UC Berkeley, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.)

The following day, Wednesday, October 23rd, a panel discussion will explore the history of some the most important mathematical achievements of the 20th century. In the 1900, at the Second International Congress of Mathematicians, David Hilbert presented the mathematics community with a collection of problems so provocative that they stimulated intense research throughout the twentieth century. It was later said that anyone who solved one of these problems became a member of the "Honors Class" of the mathematical community. Authors Benjamin Yandell and Constance Reid discuss this challenging collection of problems with Sir Michael Atiyah and Paul Cohen, an Honors Class member. (10 Evans Hall, UC Berkeley, 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.)

Saturday, October 26th, Sir Michael Atiyah will present MSRI's 20th Anniversary Celebration Lecture, "Geometry and Physics - from Plato to Hawking." (Chan Shun Auditorium, Room 2050, the Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley, 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.) The lecture will be preceded by a reception in the interior courtyard of the Valley Life Sciences Building at 3:00 p.m.

Also in celebration of its 20th anniversary, MSRI is cosponsoring with the Pacific Film Archive "CineMath," a mathematics film festival. The series is cocurated by Robert Osserman, Special Projects Director of MSRI, and Michael Singer, MSRI's Acting Director. (Osserman described the popular interest of this series in a San Francisco Chronicle article dated October 2, 2002.)

Mathematicians will introduce feature-length films at 5:30 p.m. on Sundays in October. On October 20th, Professor Dave Bayer will introduce Peter Greenaway's 1988 film Drowning by Numbers in which "games are the modus operandi" (Steve Seid). Bayer, a professor of mathematics at Barnard College, served as mathematical consultant and Russell Crow's hand double for A Beautiful Mind.

On October 27th, George Paul Csicsery's 1993 film, N is a Number, will illustrate the extraordinary life of the most prolific mathematician in the world, Paul Erdös. Erdös's close friend and collaborator, Ron Graham, will introduce the film. Dr. Graham, Chief Scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at UC San Diego, used the highest number ever in a mathematical proof, known as Graham's number. Also on the 27th, Argentine filmmaker Gustavo Mosquera will be present to discuss his film, Moebius, created in 1996 and involving a mathematician convinced that a missing subway train entered another dimension.

On Tuesday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m., "A Calculated Cinema" of selected short films will also be screened and introduced. These nine films, constructed from mathematical concepts such as topography and set theory, include silent, black and white, and color films spanning from the 1920s to the 1980s.

An important mission of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute is to serve as "a focal point for the dissemination of mathematical knowledge." The inspirational, creative, and educational events organized on the occasion of its 20th anniversary bring this mission to new heights.

For details on all these events, see the MSRI 20th Anniversary website. All events are free, except the films, tickets to which can be charged by phone at 510.642.5249.