Author Archives: woit

Some Math and Physics Items

Posted on April 6, 2025 by woit

The 2025 Breakthrough Prize winners were announced yesterday. On their website there’s a video saying that Hollywood is set to roll out the red carpet for the Breakthrough Prize ceremony, scheduled for Saturday April 12 at 3pm Eastern time. But, … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, This Week's Hype, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

The Situation at Columbia IV

Posted on April 4, 2025 by woit

Not much news from Columbia this week, the Fascist dictatorship was successful at getting the president of Columbia removed and has now moved on to Harvard, Princeton and Brown. Hopefully the leadership of those institutions is more willing to fight … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 12 Comments

The Situation at Columbia III

Posted on March 29, 2025 by woit

The interim president of Columbia was forced out last night from her position, it appears as a demand of the “Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism”, see here. This indicates that the trustees continue to believe that they have to … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 76 Comments

The Situation at Columbia II

Posted on March 27, 2025 by woit

To update the situation at Columbia, first of all, the weather is sunny and nice and the campus is very quiet. As has been the case since the police were brought in to clear Hamilton Hall and the encampments nearly … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 13 Comments

Back to Math and Physics

Posted on March 26, 2025 by woit

A few math and physics items: Masaki Kashiwara is the winner of the 2025 Abel Prize, see an announcement here, a New York Times article here and a Nature article here. Kashiwara has worked an a wide range of topics … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The Situation at Columbia

Posted on March 24, 2025 by woit

When I left for spring break 10 days ago, I was intending to write something continuing along the lines of my last blog post. The idea was to try and fight the campaign of lies about the university and support … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 27 Comments

The View From My Office

Posted on March 8, 2025 by woit

The Trump administration has announced a cutoff of $400 million in funding to Columbia University, supposedly because of its failure to take action against anti-semitism on the campus. Two months ago one would have assumed that the idea that the … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 1 Comment

A Tale of Two Cities

Posted on March 5, 2025 by woit

The prospect of massive cuts in US federal government science funding has caused an increase in the usual heated internet debates over science funding. These typically involve people arguing either: “Funding for science research is an unalloyed good that leads … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

ICM 2026

Posted on February 25, 2025 by woit

Back in 2022 at the time of the rescheduled 2022 ICM I wrote here: One decision already made there was that the 2026 ICM will be hosted by the US in Philadelphia. With the 2022 experience in mind, hopefully the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Several Items

Posted on February 10, 2025 by woit

A few items of various kinds: A little while ago I did another podcast, this time with Hrvoje Kukina. The result is now available here. There’s a new French documentary out, available here, about the story of the campaign by … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments