Graduate Blog

Hello All:

I would like to invite you all to a reading group in geometry that will be focusing on
isoperimetric/diastolic/systolic inequalities.

We will be meeting this Friday in the BA6180 at 11a.m.  and every subsequent
Friday at the same time.

This Friday, we will be discussing a short paper by Ivanov and Burago:

On asymptotic isoperimetric invariants of tori, by Burago and
Ivanov, http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.1392

If you are interested, please attend.

In the future, we plan to discuss work such as:

Generalizations of the Kolmogorov-Barzdin embedding estimates, by
Guth and Gromov, http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3423

Minimax problems related to cup powers and Steenrod squares, by
Guth, arXiv:math/0702066

Volumes of balls in large Riemannian manifolds, by Guth,
http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0610212

Overlap Properties of Geometric Expanders, by Gromov et al.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.1392

Filling length in finitely presentable groups, by Gersten and Riley
arXiv:math/0008030

The gallery length filling function and a geometric inequality for
filling length, by Gersten and Riley
http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0024611505015649

We look forward to having you,

Dominic Dotterrer
3rd Year Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Mathematics
University of Toronto
d.dotterrer@gmail.com

(The Summer School is supported by an NSF Research Training Grant. Support
is restricted to U.S. citizens/permanent residents.  Applications from
international students may be considered, but international students must
provide their own support for travel, accommodation, and meals.)

RTG Summer School on Inverse Problems & Partial Differential Equations
July 2-20, 2012

University of Washington, Seattle

The Research Training Group in the Department of Mathematics at the University of
Washington will host a summer school for advanced undergraduates and beginning
graduate students on Inverse Problems & Partial Differential Equations. Students
will attend lectures in the morning and problem sessions in small groups with
mentors in the afternoon. On-campus accommodation and meals will be provided,
plus a travel allowance of up to $600.

Two mini-courses will be given:

Robin Graham, Peter Kuchment, and Leonid Kunyansky:
The Radon transform and the X-Ray Transform

John Lowengrub, Ami Radunskaya, and Tatiana Toro:
A mathematical approach to cancer growth

URL: www.math.washington.edu/ipde/summer

Apply online by: April 1.

The ABSOLUTE deadline to request courses on ROSI and to follow-up with an
add/drop form* is

MONDAY, JANUARY 23RD, 2012

Students taking courses from other departments must obtain approval
signatures from the other departments.

The next important deadline is  MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2012  to drop
second semester courses without academic penalty. After this date
the request to drop must be approved by SGS and will carry a penalty.

Master's students will enrol in their supervised research projects
in May.  

*http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/Assets/SGS+Digital+Assets/current/Student+Forms/Add-Drop+Course.pdf

Copies of this form can also be found in the mailroom.

Dear Graduate Students,

Tom Denton, a postdoc at York University and in the Fields Institute,
is participating and organizing and seeking your help in strengthening
mathematical communities in Africa. He will be giving a presentation
about his activities - and asking if you can help - on Tuesday January
24th, 5:00 p.m., at Bahen 6183. Please come!

His title is "Strengthening Mathematical Communities in Africa", and
his abstract reads:

We will discuss a number of initiatives occurring in Kenya to improve
math education at all levels (high school, undergraduate, and graduate),
while building links between Kenyan mathematicians and the international
mathematical community.  Thus far, these initiatives have included
an international conference held in Nairobi, workshops for graduate
students, a math camp for high school students, and a new electronic
courseware system for undergraduate and post-graduate students.
We will also discuss the scope and impact of the African Institute
of Mathematical Sciences, which has three centers in Ghana, South Africa and
Senegal, and is aiming to expand to fifteen centers by 2050.  We will
also discuss ways that you can get involved!

(My own minor African experience is at
http://www.math.toronto.edu/~drorbn/classes/0910/Homology/index.html
and http://www.math.toronto.edu/~drorbn/classes/0910/Homology/report.html)

Best,

Dror Bar-Natan.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:56:38 -0500
From: Yvonne Adams <yadams@uwo.ca>
To: drorbn@math.utoronto.ca
Subject: Unique Graduate School Opportunity for your Students

Dear  Colleagues,

We write to once again ask your help in promoting a unique graduate program
in Economics at the University of Western Ontario. We believe that the
program may be of substantial interest to some students from your department
since it has been designed to allow talented students with strong
quantitative training in fields other than Economics to immediately pursue
an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Western Ontario even
with no previous course-work in Economics. Our motivation for this program
is that Economics stands apart from other social sciences in its use of
rigorous mathematical models to describe human behaviour. The program has
now been in place for several years, and we have found that talented
students with strong quantitative training in other disciplines (e.g., math
and physics) are highly successful in our program.   Two years ago our first
year class included 3 students from Mathematics backgrounds, 4 students from
Physics backgrounds, 5 students from Economics backgrounds, and 1 student
from an Engineering background. Last year, we had 8 from Economics, 4 from
Mathematics, 1 from Physics, and 1 from Engineering.  This year we have 7
from Economics, 5 from Math and 1 from Finance.

The following is a link to a brochure which contains more details regarding
the program and the substantial funding we can provide to students. We have
also included some observations from some of those currently enrolled
students from non-traditional backgrounds regarding their experience with
the program.

<http://economics.uwo.ca/grad/mathbrochure2012.pdf>
http://economics.uwo.ca/grad/mathbrochure2012.pdf

Our graduate program and general department web-sites can be found at

<http://economics.uwo.ca/grad/> http://economics.uwo.ca/grad/

http://economics.uwo.ca <http://economics.uwo.ca/>

We do not wish to be intrusive, so we would appreciate it if you could
assist us in providing information about our program to your students. If
you would forward this email -- or at least the link to the web-site -- to
any and all of your undergraduate students (as well as any graduate students
finishing a program but interested in further graduate work in a different
area), we would be most appreciative. We have already begun admitting
qualified students into this program for the fall semester of 2012. We
encourage students with even a mild interest to contact us immediately. We
are more than happy to help students determine whether our program might be
a good match for them and provide a quick indication of their suitability
for our program and the likely funding we could provide.

We would, of course, also be happy to answer any questions you might have
about the program and will send you a copy of the brochure by regular mail.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Igor Livshits, Associate Professor and Graduate Director;
<mailto:livshits@uwo.ca> livshits@uwo.ca; Yvonne Adams, Graduate
Coordinator,  <mailto:yadams@uwo.ca> yadams@uwo.ca

 -------- Original Message --------
Subject:  Parkdale Mentorship Program
Date:  Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:06:35 -0500
From:  patricia.mighiu@utoronto.ca
To:  undisclosed-recipients:;    

===============================================================================
Dear student,

*WHO:* Parkdale Mentorship Program 2012!

*What:* A mentorship program that introduces high school students in
underprivileged communities to the wide variety of possible careers.

*When:* 10am-1pm for ten Saturday sessions between February 4th and May
5th.

*Where:* Parkdale Community Center (less than 30 minutes away from the
downtown campus by TTC).

*Why:*
- This is your opportunity to be involved in a fun and unique mentorship
program!
- No prep work on your part. Just come and be a mentor for your high school
mentee.
- Have the chance to participate in the weekly activities and various field
trips! Last year we had an Iron Chef competition for our culinary arts
theme and went on a field trip to the UTIAS (U of T Institute for Aerospace
Studies) and got to experience a flight simulator among other things for
our engineering theme.
- Free lunch!

*Breakdown of each session:*
- Guest speaker from the career represented that week.
- Opportunity to hang out with your mentee over the provided lunch.
- Fun and hands-on activities related to the career theme.

*Planned career themes:*
- Health care
- Trades
- First responses
- Engineering
- Art and Design
- Journalism and Media
- Politics and Law
- Business
- Teaching
- Science and research

If you are interested in becoming a mentor or helping out with the
program, or if you have any questions please e-mail *uoftpmp@gmail.com*.
E-mailing us doesn't imply that you are committed to the program. A lunch
meeting will be held in January where we will give you more detailed
information regarding the program and have an official online application
form.

Thank you!
Parkdale Mentorship Program Directors 2011-2012

I would be very grateful if you could send this message to graduate students
in mathematics and statistics. I have four books for sale in probability, and
these titles may be of some interest to your graduate students.

Depending on the interest, we could schedule a time to meet in Sidney
Smith Hall, just by the Second Cup there.

PROBABILITY BOOKS FOR SALE:

1. David Williams, Probability with Martingales, $20.00
2. Thomas Mikosch, Elementary Stochastic Calculus, $25.00
3.  Kai Lai Chung, A Course in Probability Theory, $40.00
4. A.N. Shiryaev, Probability, $45.00

Thank you very kindly for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Geoffrey Brown
1geoffrey.brown@gmail.com

New College is looking for several dynamic individuals to join their team of Residence Dons for the 2012/13 academic year. Graduate students who can demonstrate significant leadership experience and maturity are encouraged to apply.

Successful candidates will receive comprehensive training and gain practical experience in conflict resolution, para-counselling, community building, and leadership. In return for their services, Dons are provided with a

self-contained suite suitable for single accommodation and a full meal plan for the residence year (early September to the end of April).

Applications are due Tuesday February 14th, 2012 at 4pm and are available online at: http://www.newcollege.utoronto.ca/current-students/residence-at-new-college/current-residents/living-at-new-college/residence-life/dons-in-residence/

Please note the new location for Florian Herzig's graduate course:

MAT1104HS
Topics in Algebra II: The mod p Representation Theory of p-adic Groups
F. Herzig
T 1-3, F 1-2
STEWART LIBRARY, Fields Institute, 222 College St.
(previously listed as BA6180)

First class is tomorrow, Tuesday, January 10, 1 pm.