Printer-friendly versionEnrico Bombieri to Discuss Mathematical Truth at Institute for Advanced Study
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Euclid with his students, detail from Raphael's "The School of Athens" in the Vatican Museum |
Enrico Bombieri, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, will present “The Mathematical Truth” on Friday, October 29, at 6:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus.
In this talk, Bombieri, one of the world’s leading authorities on number theory and analysis, will attempt to give an idea of the numerous different notions of truth in mathematics. Utilizing accessible examples, he will explore the difference between truth, proof and verification.
Bombieri’s work has a broad mathematical focus, ranging from analytic number theory to algebra and algebraic geometry and the partial differential equations of minimal surfaces. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1974 for his work on the large sieve and its application to the distribution of prime numbers.
In the past decade, his main contributions have been in the area of Diophantine approximation and Diophantine geometry, exploring questions on how to solve equations and inequalities in integers and rational numbers. Some of this work, in particular that which is related to prime number theory, has potential practical applications to cryptography and security of data transmission and identification.
In addition to the Fields Medal, Bombieri has received many honors, including the King Faisal International Prize in 2010, the Joseph Doob Prize of the American Mathematical Society in 2008, the Premio Internazionale Pitagora from the City of Crotone in Italy in 2006, the Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica, Italy, in 2002, the Balzan Prize in 1980 and the Feltrinelli Prize in 1976.
After receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Milan in 1963, Bombieri joined the faculty of the University of Pisa as Professor from 1966-74. He was named Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore at Pisa in 1974. Bombieri joined the Faculty at the Institute in 1977 following a Membership in 1973-74. He was named IBM von Neumann Professor in 1984. He will become Professor Emeritus in July 2011.
Bombieri is a Member of the Accademia Nazionale in Rome, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Royal Swedish Academy, the French Académie des Sciences, the Academia Europaea and the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
For further information about the lecture, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.
About the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of no more than 28, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Some 33 Nobel Laureates and 38 out of 52 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.