The Shaw Prize Lecture in Mathematical Sciences

The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences 2022 is awarded in equal shares to Noga Alon, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Princeton, USA and Ehud Hrushovski, Merton Professor of Mathematical Logic, University of Oxford, UK for their remarkable contributions to discrete mathematics and model theory with interaction notably with algebraic geometry, topology and computer sciences.

HKUST will host the Shaw Prize Lecture in Mathematical Sciences on September 30 where the two laureates, Prof. Alon and Prof. Hrushovski, will give a talk on topics “The Combinatorial Nullstellensatz: Applications, Extensions and Algorithms” and “Logic, Geometry and (Approximate) Groups” respectively.  The lectures will be followed by a live Q & A session.

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Details of the lecture

Prof. Noga Alon

Title: The Combinatorial Nullstellensatz: Applications, Extensions and Algorithms

Abstract: The focus of the lecture is a topic to which Prof. Noga Alon devoted much efforts over the years. It is still the subject of some of his present work and of the research of a considerable number of additional researchers. This is the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz, a variant of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz which is one of the foundational results of Algebraic Geometry. This variant found applications in Combinatorics, Graph theory, Additive Number Theory and Combinatorial Geometry.  He will describe some of these applications and discuss briefly their intriguing algorithmic aspects.

Prof. Ehud Hrushovski

Title: Logic, Geometry and (approximate) groups

Abstract: Prof. Ehud Hrushovsk will discuss some points of contact between mathematical logic and geometry, centering on plane geometry, symmetries and approximate symmetries. The talk is intended to be understandable to mathematically oriented high school students, at least in part.