Helmut Hofer Presents Lecture on Celestial Mechanics and a Geometry Based on Area
Helmut Hofer, Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, will present “Celestial Mechanics and a Geometry Based on Area” on Wednesday, March 10, at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute’s campus.
The mathematical problems arising from modern celestial mechanics, which originated with Isaac Newton’s Principia in 1687, have led to many mathematical theories. Poincaré (1854-1912) discovered that a system of several celestial bodies moving under Newton’s gravitational law shows chaotic dynamics. Earlier, Euler (1707–83) and Lagrange (1736–1813) found instances of stable motion; a spacecraft in the gravitational fields of the sun, earth, and the moon provides an interesting system of this kind. Helmut Hofer, Professor in the School of Mathematics, will explain how these observations have led to the development of a geometry based on area rather than distance.
Hofer joined the Faculty of the Institute in 2009. One of the founders of the area of symplectic topology, his research focuses on symplectic geometry, dynamical systems and partial differential equations. His fundamental contributions to the field have led to a new area of mathematics known as “Hofer geometry.”
Hofer studied at the University of Zurich, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1981. He taught at Zurich from 1979 to 1982, and the following year he joined the University of Bath as a Lecturer in Pure Mathematics. From there, he went to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he served as Assistant Professor (1985-87), Associate Professor (1987-88), and Professor (1988-89). Hofer then became a Professor at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, a position he held from 1989 to 1993. From 1993 to 1997, he was Professor at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich. He joined the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University as Professor in 1997 and was Silver Professor from 2006 until 2009, when he joined the Faculty at the Institute. Hofer was a Member in the School of Mathematics at the Institute in 1987, 2001 and 2005.
Hofer is the recipient of the 1999 Ostrowski Prize. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea in 2008. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences at Leipzig, Germany. Hofer is on the editorial boards of Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics and EMS Monographs in Mathematics, is Editor of Monographs in Mathematics and is the Managing Editor of Inventiones Mathematicae.
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 curiosity-driven 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 approximately 30, and it ensures 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. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 40 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.