Etienne Ghys: Vancouver Tour

The Consulate General of France, in Vancouver, together with PIMS are pleased to host French Mathematician Etienne Ghys during his Vancouver Tour, May 2-3 2019. Étienne Ghys is a French mathematician. His scientific contributions deal with the geometry and topology of dynamical systems. He has been instrumental in the creation and development of the mathematics department in the Ecole Normale Supérieure, in Lyon. More recently he has been involved in several actions towards the public dissemination of mathematics, for which he received a Clay Award. His most recent book (A Singular Mathematical Promenade) proposes a visual approach to the theory of singularities of planar curves. He has been elected Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences in January 2019.

The Geometry of Snowflakes

TELUS World of Science

Thursday, May 2, 2019

A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature exhibition at 6:00 - 7:00 pm

Presentation & Q&A at 7:00 - 8:00 pm, Reception to follow

Snowflakes are natural jewels. Scientists have been trying to understand these gems falling from the sky for more than four hundred years. Today, we understand better this phenomenon but many questions remain unsolved. I would like to tell the story of snowflakes but above all this will be an opportunity to show beautiful images. This exhibit is open to elementary and high school students as well as the general public. 

PIMS Colloquium - Singularities of planar analytic curves

UBC, Earth Science Building, 1012

Friday, May 3, 2019

Reception at 2:30pm | Lecture at 3:00pm - 4:30 pm

In the neighborhood of a singular point, a real analytic curve in the plane consists of a finite number of branches. Each of these branches intersects a small circle around the singular point in two points. The main purpose of this talk is to give an complete description of those analytic chord diagrams. On our way, we shall meet some interesting concepts from computer science, graph theory and operads.

Café des Sciences - La géométrie des grands réseaux

Alliance Française, 6161 Cambie St, Vancouver

Friday, May 3, 2019 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Reception to follow.

Réseaux sociaux, réseaux de neurones, Internet, réseau ferroviaire, réseaux téléphoniques, etc. Nous vivons dans un monde organisé en réseaux qui ont souvent des tailles gigantesques. Depuis longtemps les mathématiciens s’intéressent à ces structures et essayent de comprendre leur géométrie, qui n’a pas grand-chose à voir avec le théorème de Pythagore! Note: Lecture will be conducted in French.

Event Registration

There is no fee for attending these talks, however, for logistical purposes, please register for any or one of these events through the site here.