News Archives 2012

This page provides information about former developments at KdVI . Please let us know if you have material that you would like to be added to the news page, by using the online submission form. For minor updates to existing entries you can also email the news administrators directly. English submissions strongly preferred.

Please note that links in this section to external sites are not kept updated.

*   Sections

  1. Events
  2. Projects and Awards
  3. Miscellaneous

There are also pages for former news items and past events for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and for current news of course.

*    Headlines Events

*    Headlines Projects and Awards

*    Headlines Miscellaneous


*    Events

  • 9 January 2012, FNWI Faculty Colloquium, Sergey Shadrin
    Speaker: Sergey Shadrin

    The next FNWI Faculty Colloquium will take place on Monday 9 January 2012, 10.00-10.45 hour in room C1.110, Science Park 904, Amsterdam. After the dean's quarter prof. dr. Sergey Shadrin (KdVI) will speak at 10.15 on The KdV equation all around us. Final speaker is dr. Peter Doorn of KNAW-DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services).

    For more information (in Dutch), see http://tinyurl.com/bns8ha7. The sheets of Shadrin's lecture can be downloaded from http://www.science.uva.nl/math/About/Shadrin-KdV.pdf.

  • 23-25 January 2012, 11th Winter School on Mathematical Finance, Congrescentrum De Werelt, Lunteren

    The 11th winter school has as special topics Systemic risk and Volatility models. Two mini-courses will be delivered by Tom Hurd (McMaster Univ.) and Alexander Lipton (Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Imperial College). Special invited lectures by Elyes Jouini (Univ. Paris-Dauphine), Yuri Kabanov (Univ. de Franche-Comté) and Josef Teichmann (ETH Zürich). Four short lectures complete the programme. The oprganizers are Hans Schumacher (Tilburg University) and Peter Spreij (KdVI).

    For further information and registration see
    http://staff.science.uva.nl/~spreij/winterschool/winterschool.html

  • 25 January 2012, Oratie Jeroen de Mast

    Dr. J. de Mast (IBIS UvA), recentelijk benoemd tot Hoogleraar Industriële Statistiek bij de UvA, zal zijn hoogleraarsambt openlijk aanvaarden door het uitspreken van een rede, getiteld:

    Industriële statistiek als technologie voor het oplossen van problemen

    Plaats: Aula van de UvA, ingang Singel 411, hoek Spui

    Datum en tijd: woensdag 25 januari 2012, 16.00 uur

    Zie voor verdere informatie http://tinyurl.com/7jb2b7b.

  • 27 January 2012, PhD defense, Sjors van der Stelt (UvA/CWI)
    Title: Rise and Fall of Periodic Patterns for a generalized Klausmeier-Gray-Scott model
    Date and time: Friday 27 January 2012, 13.00
    Location: Aula van de Universiteit, Singel 411, hoek Spui, Amsterdam
    Promotor: Prof. dr. A. Doelman
    Copromotores: Dr. G.M. Hek, Dr. J.D.M. Rademacher

    For more information, see http://tinyurl.com/83ajxok.

  • 1 February 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Bart Vlaar (UvA)
    Speaker: Bart Vlaar (UvA)
    Title: Non-symmetric particle creation operators for the quantum nonlinear Schrödinger model
    Date and time: Wednesday 1 February 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/. For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 15 February 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Krzysztof Apt
    Speaker: Krzysztof Apt
    Title: Choosing Products in Social Networks
    Date and time: Wednesday 15 February 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 29 February 2012, PhD defense, André Heck
    Title: Perspectives on an Integrated Computer Learning Environment
    Date and time: Wednesday 29 February 2012, 14.00 hrs
    Location: Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, Amsterdam
    Promotor: Prof. dr. J. van de Craats

    For more information, see http://tinyurl.com/83u4vpn.
    The dissertation can be downloaded from
    http://www.science.uva.nl/~heck/dissertationHeck.pdf.

  • 29 February 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Gil Cavalcanti (Utrecht)
    Speaker: Gil Cavalcanti (Utrecht)
    Title: Generalized geometry and T-duality
    Date and time: Wednesday 29 February 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 2 March 2012, AiO Seminar Mathematics, Petya Dunin-Barkowski
    Speaker: Petya Dunin-Barkowski
    Title: Lattice theta constants vs Riemann theta constants and NSR superstring measures
    Date and time: Friday 2 March 2012, 16.00-17.00
    Location: Room B0.201, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The AiO Seminar Mathematics homepage can be found at http://staff.science.uva.nl/~lspitz/AiOSeminar.html. For more information, please contact Loek Spitz (L.Spitz at uva.nl) or Arie Peterson (A.Peterson at uva.nl)

  • 14 March 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Bert Zwart, CWI & VU.
    Speakers: Bert Zwart, CWI & VU.
    Title: An encounter with Erlang, Gauss, Poisson and Ramanujan
    Date and time: Wednesday 14 March 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    Title: An encounter with Erlang, Gauss, Poisson and Ramanujan Abstract: Erlang's formulae describe the probability of blocking, delay or abandonment in three basic qeueing models. Despite (or thanks to) their simplicity, these formulae are among the most celebrated results in Applied Probability. For large systems (for example, call centers with many agents), these formulae become less insightful, and a large body of research is devoted to developing asymptotic approximations of blocking probabilities. This talk is devoted to assessing the quality of such approximations. In passing, we provide new Gaussian approximations of Poisson distributions.

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 28 March 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Evgeny Verbitskiy (Leiden/Groningen)
    Speaker: Evgeny Verbitskiy (Leiden/Groningen)
    Title: Dimers, sandpiles and algebraic dynamics.
    Date and time: Wednesday 28 March 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    In this talk I will address the link between solvable models of statistical mechanics and algebraic dynamical systems. The main reason to believe in the existence of a strong link is the remarkable coincidence of entropies of many celebrated solvable lattice models (dimer matchings, domino tilings, spanning trees, etc) and entropies of certain algebraic dynamical systems. Even though the question about the existence of such a link was raised almost two decades ago, this problem remained largely inaccessible. The development of the theory of symbolic covers of algebraic dynamical systems has only recently provided a suitable framework. I will describe in greater detail the link between the solvable sandpile models and their algebraic counterparts. The talk is based on a series of joint papers with D. Lind (Seattle) and K. Schmidt (Vienna).

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 10 April 2012, NSA-Symposium "Met het oog op toepassing"

    Dinsdag 10 april wordt het jaarlijkse symposium van de studievereniging NSA gehouden. Deze keer is het thema Met het oog op toepassing. De sprekers zullen vertellen over de manier waarop zij theoretische natuur- of wiskunde toepassen in hun eigen vakgebied.
    Sprekers zijn Jan Kuijpers (Radboud Univ. Nijmegen), Lex Schrijver (CWI en KdVI), Nicolai Reshetikhin (Univ. of California at Berkeley en KdVI), Ekkes Brück (TU Delft).

    Het symposium vindt plaats in de theaterzaal van CREA, Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam van 11.45 tot 16.30 uur. Toegangsprijs is 2 euro.

    Zie voor verdere informatie http://nsaweb.nl/activiteiten/symposium/.

  • 11 April 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Jose Blanchet
    Speaker: Jose Blanchet
    Title: Modeling and Efficient Rare Event Simulation of Systemic Risk in Insurance-Reinsurance Networks (joint work with Yixi Shi)
    Date and time: Wednesday 11 April 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    We propose a dynamic insurance network model that allows to deal with reinsurance counter-party default risks with a particular aim of capturing cascading effects at the time of defaults. We capture these effects by finding an equilibrium allocation of settlements which can be found as the unique optimal solution of a linear programming problem. This equilibrium allocation recognizes 1) the correlation among the risk factors, which are assumed to be heavy-tailed, 2) the contractual obligations, which are assumed to follow popular contracts in the insurance industry (such as stop-loss and retro-cesion), and 3) the interconnections of the insurance-reinsurance network. We are able to obtain an asymptotic description of the most likely ways in which the default of a specific group of insurers can occur, by means of solving a multidimensional Knapsack integer programming problem. Finally, we propose a class of provably strongly efficient estimators for computing the expected loss of the network conditioning the failure of a specific set of companies. Strong efficiency means that the complexity of computing large deviations probability or conditional expectation remains bounded as the event of interest becomes more and more rare.

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 12 April 2012, 48th Netherlands Mathematical Congress, TU Eindhoven

    The 48th Netherlands Mathematical Congress (NMC 2012) will take place in Eindhoven on Thursday, April 12, 2012. The programme includes two plenary lectures and a number of minisymposia in parallel sessions. In addition, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers are offered the possibility to present a poster.

    For more information, see http://w3.win.tue.nl/en/events/nmc2012/
    for the general programme, and
    http://w3.win.tue.nl/en/events/nmc2012/postersession/
    for the poster session.

  • 13 April 2012, Leve de Wiskunde! 2012

    Voor de tiende keer organiseren het Korteweg-de Vries Instituut (KdVI) voor Wiskunde en het Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) van de Universiteit van Amsterdam het evenement Leve de Wiskunde!. Sprekers zijn Chris Klaassen, Fokko van de Bult, Sonja Smets en Jason Frank.
    De bijeenkomst vindt plaats op vrijdag 13 april 2012 in het gebouw Science Park 904, Amsterdam. Alle belangstellenden zijn van harte welom. Daarnaast moedigen we wiskundedocenten aan om geïnteresseerde leerlingen mee te nemen.

    Zie voor verdere informatie en aanmelding
    http://www.science.uva.nl/levedewiskunde

  • 18 April 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Estate Khmaladze
    Speaker: Estate Khmaladze
    Title: One approach to differentiation of set-valued functions. Its applications to spatial statistical problems
    Date and time: Wednesday 18 April 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 25 April 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Hans Maassen
    Speaker: Hans Maassen
    Title: Quantum information, probability, and statistics
    Date and time: Wednesday April 25 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    Abstract: Non-commutative or "quantum" probability theory considers random phenomena from the point of view of operator algebras. In this way techniques from probability and statistics can, by generalization beyond commutative algebras, be applied to quantum mechanical systems. In order to illustrate the method, we discuss several topics: limits to the copying of information in connection to the Heisenberg principle, entanglement of quantum systems, in particular under symmetry, and the use of Young diagrams as statistical estimators.

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 2012, AiO Seminar Mathematics, Masoumeh Garaei
    Speaker: Masoumeh Garaei
    Title: Random Hopf bifurcation for random differential equations on the plane.
    Date and time: Friday 2012, 16.00-17.00
    Location: Room D1.113, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The AiO Seminar Mathematics homepage can be found at http://staff.science.uva.nl/~lspitz/AiOSeminar.html. For more information, please contact Loek Spitz (L.Spitz at uva.nl) or Arie Peterson (A.Peterson at uva.nl)

  • 8 May 2012, Master's defense, Jan Nauta
    Title: affine Lie algebras and affine root systems
    Date and time: Tuesday 8 May 2012, 14:00-15:00
    Location: Room D1.115, Science Park 904, Amsterdam
    Supervisor: Jasper Stokman

    For more information, please contact a.j.homburg at uva.nl

  • 9 May 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Harrie Willems
    Speaker: Harrie Willems
    Title: Late Style - Yuri Manin Looking Back on a Life in Mathematics
    Date and time: Wednesday 9 May 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    A film by Agnes Handwerk and Harrie Willems. This biographical documentary follows Yuri Ivanovich Manin's stellar career in the "golden years" of Moscow mathematics during the 1960s and 1970s. He was one of the key players in the development of algebraic geometry, at a time when a constellation of brilliant minds - of which Manin's was but one - were conducting outstanding mathematical research. This happened under the structures of a closed society that put severe restrictions on academics (despite diplomatic détente) right up to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Yuri Manin's brilliance, and his unswerving integrity, helped him to evade the pitfalls of Sovietera academia. His full cooperation with the documentary allows the world a fascinating glimpse into an era of scientific enquiry that is as celebrated as it is underreported. It is about the exceptional life of a mathematician in unusual times, whose passion for his subject, as well as his breadth of thinking, allowed him to forge his own freedom. Internationally recognized for his contribution to mathematics, Manin's many prizes include the Lenin Prize in 1967, the Brouwer Gold Medal in 1984 and the Georg Cantor Medal in 2002. The length of the documentary is 57 minutes.

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

  • 13 May 2012, Wakker Worden Kinderlezingen, Michel Mandjes
    Speaker: Michel Mandjes
    Title: Waarom win ik nooit de loterij?
    Date and time: Sunday 13 May 2012, 11.00
    Location: NEMO

    Michel Mandjes (KdVI) geeft de eerstvolgende kinderlezing op zondag 13 mei. Het gaat dan over kansrekening en tactieken om een loterij te winnen.

    Zie voor verdere informatie en voor (verplichte) aanmelding http://www.kinderlezingen.nl/kinderlezingen/.

  • 23 May 2012, General Mathematics Colloquium, Hans Zwart
    Speaker: Hans Zwart
    Title: Linear port Hamiltonian Systems
    Date and time: Wednesday 23 May 2012, 11.15-12.15
    Location: Room G4.15, Science Park 904, Amsterdam

    The field of infinite-dimensional systems theory has become a well-established field within mathematics and systems theory. There are basically two approaches to infinite-dimensional linear systems theory: an abstract functional analytical approach and a PDE approach. Many physical systems can be formulated using a Hamiltonian framework. This class contains ordinary as well as partial differential equations. Each system in this class has a Hamiltonian, generally given by the energy function. In the study of Hamiltonian systems it is usually assumed that the system does not interact with its environment. However, for the purpose of control and for the interconnection of two or more Hamiltonian systems it is essential to take this interaction with the environment into account. This led to the class of port-Hamiltonian systems. For port-Hamiltonian systems described by ordinary differential equations this approach is very successful. Port-Hamiltonian systems described by partial differential equation is a subject of current research.

    In this presentation, we combine the abstract functional analytical approach with the more physical approach based on Hamiltonians. For a class of linear infinite-dimensional port-Hamiltonian systems we derive easy verifiable conditions for well-posedness.

    The General Mathematics Colloquium homepage can be found at http://www.science.uva.nl/research/math/Calendar/colloq/ For more information, please contact Tanja Eisner (t.eisner at uva.nl), Hessel Posthuma (h.b.posthumsa at uva.nl) or Neil Walton (n.s.walton at uva.nl)

*    Projects and Awards

  • NWO grants for forensic research by Marjan Sjerps and Chris Klaassen

    Prof. dr. Marjan Sjerps (NFI and KdVI) obtained a grant as a principal investigator from the NWO program Forensic Science. The title of her project is Combining evidence in legal (forensic) casework. The aim of the project is to raise the level on which proofs by forensic scientists and experts in criminal law are evaluated.
    KdVI researchers are involved in two more granted projects in this program Forensic Science. Sjerps also participates in the project COMFOR: The use of comprehensive two-dimensional chromatographic methods for chemical profiling of complex natural materials of prof. dr. ir. P.J. Schoenmakers (UvA). Prof. dr. Chris Klaassen (KdVI) participates in the program Forensic Face Recognition of dr. ir. R.N.J. Veldhuis (Universiteit Twente).

    For more information in Dutch, see http://tinyurl.com/3zcgooe and http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_88LEP8

*    Miscellaneous

  • Henrik De Bie awarded first Clifford Prize

    Hendrik De Bie of Ghent University has been selected as the recipient of the first Clifford Prize for his outstanding mathematical research achievements in the fields of harmonic and Clifford analysis with applications in theoretical physics.
    While he was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), he spent a longer research stay (May-October 2010) at the KdV Institute visiting Eric Opdam and Jasper Stokman.

    For more information, see the Mathematics People section in Notices Amer. Math. Soc. October 2011 (http://www.ams.org/notices/201109/). For the homepage of Hendrik De Bie see
    http://cage.ugent.be/~hdebie/.

  • Robbert Dijkgraaf Appointed Director of Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

    Robbert Dijkgraaf, a distinguished mathematical physicist who has made significant contributions to string theory and the advancement of science education, has been appointed Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, USA with effect from July 1, 2012. Dijkgraaf, currently President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and Distinguished University Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), will succeed Peter Goddard, who has served as Director since January 2004. Robbert Dijkgraaf served as Professor of Mathematical Physics at the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics (KdVI) at UvA from 1992–2004, and currently is Distinguished University Professor (Universiteitshoogleraar) of Mathematical Physics at UvA, a position he has held since 2005 and which he will keep, including an affiliation with KdVI.

    For more information, see
    http://www.ias.edu/news/press-releases/2011/11/14/dijkgraaf-appt
    and http://www.knaw.nl/Pages/DEF/31/603.html
    and http://tinyurl.com/c5neunl

  • Vacature Instituutscoördinator KdVI en API

    Het Korteweg-de Vries Instituut voor Wiskunde (KdVI) en Sterrenkundig Instituut Anton Pannekoek (API) van de UvA hebben gezamenlijk een vacature voor een Instituutscoördinator (2 dagen per week KdVI en 3 dagen per week API). De instituutscoördinator ondersteunt en adviseert de instituutsdirecteuren van API en KdVI ten aanzien van beleids- en besluitvorming op gebied van o.a. de bedrijfsvoering (binnen de context van de faculteit en universiteit) en draagt zorg voor een efficiënte en effectieve organisatie van de bedrijfsvoering van beide instituten.

    Wij zoeken een afgestudeerd wis- natuur- of sterrenkundige, bij voorkeur gepromoveerd, met bewezen affiniteit met financieel- en personeelsmanagement en leidinggeven.

    Zie voor verdere informatie de betreffende pagina
    http://tinyurl.com/6wr9b4b op www.uva.nl/vacatures.

  • Judith van Witsen 1925-2011

    Het Korteweg-de Vries Instituut voor Wiskunde van de UvA heeft met leedwezen kennisgenomen van het overlijden op 19 december 2011 van

    Judith van Witsen

    Judith was van 1954 tot 1989 als secretaresse verbonden aan het Mathematisch Instituut van de UvA. In deze periode was zij de spil van het instituut en verantwoordelijk voor alle organisatorische en administratieve zaken. Haar inzet en betrokkenheid bij het instituut en de universiteit waren voorbeeldig.

    Wij gedenken haar met respect.

    Wij wensen haar naasten en verdere familie veel sterkte toe bij het verwerken van dit verlies.

  • 5 April 2012, Muziekavond voor staf KdVI en wiskundestudenten

    Na het succes van de vorig jaren zal er dit jaar wederom een muziekavond voor en door stafleden KdVI en studenten wiskunde bij de UvA worden gehouden. Deze vindt plaats op donderdag 5 april 2012, 20.15 uur in zaal De Tamboer, Overtoom 247-A, Amsterdam.

    Neem voor verdere informatie contact op met Andries Lenstra, http://tinyurl.com/5rgnq9u.

  • Prof. dr. N.G. de Bruijn, 1918-2012

    N.G. (Dick) de Bruijn passed away on 17 February 2012. He was an emeritus professor of the Technical University Eindhoven, where he was a professor of mathematics from 1960 until 1984. He came to Eindhoven from the University of Amsterdam, where he was a professor of mathematics during 1952-1960. He published in many different areas, in particular in analysis, number theory, combinatorics and logic. Famous is his book Asymptotic methods in analysis (1958). In later years he developed Automath, a computer program for automatic verification of proofs in mathemtics. The De Bruijn sequences, named after him, are widely discussed in literature and have even applications in magic (see the recent book Magical mathematics by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham).

    For more information, see http://tinyurl.com/89yn946 (pdf file from Kleine TUE Encyclopedie) and http://tinyurl.com/6pkuuol (MacTutor History of Mathematics biography). See also on
    http://www.win.tue.nl/debruijn90/video/debruijn.html the video of the lecture by de Bruijn during the symposium on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday.

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