Salam Distinguished Lecture Series 2015

ICTP's annual Salam Distinguished Lecture Series is set to take place this year from 26 to 30 January, and for the first time in its brief history (ICTP launched the  series in 2012), the lectures will be delivered by a mathematician.

Don Zagier, a number theorist who serves on the board of directors of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, will deliver a series of five talks on the theme "The Magic of Modular Forms". Zagier is also an ICTP Distinguished Staff Associate, teaching graduate courses and advising ICTP doctoral students.

Modular forms are functions having an infinite group of symmetries and many beautiful properties. They were originally discovered in the context of differential equations and then became very important in number theory, but are now ubiquitous in mathematics and also in many parts of physics. Each of the five lectures--which will be related but nevertheless largely independent of one another--will highlight a different one of their many appearances:

• Classical modular forms and some of their applications in arithmetic
• Modular forms, differential equations, and the irrationality of $\zeta(3)$
• Quasimodular forms and counting problems in topology and group theory
• Mock modular forms and the string theory of black holes
• Quantum modular forms and quantum invariants of knots

ICTP's Salam Distinguished Lecture Series is an annual presentation of talks by renowned, active scientists and mathematicians. The aim is to showcase important research developments as well as provide a visionary forward view. The series is supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). Past speakers have included Nima Arkani-Hamed, William Bialek and Subir Sachdev.

All of the lectures will take place in the Budinich Lecture Hall starting at 16:30.

Related Links:

• ICTP profile of Don Zagier 
• Salam Distinguished Lecture Series (video-recorded lectures)