Category Archives: Uncategorized

This year’s Abel Prize has gone to topologist Dennis Sullivan, for the announcement see here, with more information about Sullivan and his work here. There are press stories at Nature, the New York Times, Quanta, and elsewhere. Sullivan was one … Continue reading →

Some short items and links: Among possible futures that I never would have dreamed of during my student days was that someday my Nobel-prize-winning undergraduate advisor would “try to rile” my Nobel-prize-winning graduate school professor at a Bohr Centennial celebration … Continue reading →

The news this evening that Russia is sending troops into the Eastern Ukraine and in effect announcing annexation of at least part of the Ukraine carries extremely disturbing implications for the whole world. On a much more minor scale of … Continue reading →

Various items that may be of interest: Robbert Dijkgraaf was sworn in a few days ago as Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the Dutch government. Unclear who if anyone is director of the IAS at the moment, but … Continue reading →

Yet more math items: First of all, congratulations to my colleague Johan de Jong, recipient of the 2022 AMS Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition. Johan’s Stacks Project is very much deserving of such recognition. It’s both huge in scale and … Continue reading →

First some math news: An anonymous commenter claims here that the 2026 ICM will take place in Philadelphia. I had heard that a US group was submitting a proposal, so this rumor is plausible. Many mathematicians and physicists have signed … Continue reading →

A couple months ago I recorded a podcast with Lex Fridman, it’s now available here. A lot of Fridman’s other interviews are well worth watching or listening to, and I thought we had an interesting conversation. I can’t stand listening … Continue reading →

During recent travels I attended two conferences (in Paris and Berkeley) and met up with quite a few people. At the Paris conference I gave an intentionally provocative talk to the philosophers of physics there, slides are here. The argument … Continue reading →