EVENT:
Mathematician Karl Rubin will discuss the solving of Fermat's Last Theorem as part of the 2006-07 Discover the Physical Sciences Breakfast Lecture Series at UC Irvine. This famous theorem, written in the margin of a book in the 1640s, went unsolved for more than 350 years. In 1994, Princeton University professor Andrew Wiles solved the problem. In this talk, Rubin, a former doctoral student under Wiles, will explain the history of the problem, the search for a solution, the excitement surrounding the announcement of the solution, and the tools Wiles used in his proof.
WHEN:
7:30-9 a.m. Tuesday, March 20
WHERE:
Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, 100 Academy, Irvine. Map: www.uci.edu/campusmap
INFORMATION:
Free and open to the public. For reservations, call 949-824-7252 or e-mail events@ps.uci.edu. For more information, call 949-824-7252 or visit www.physsci.uci.edu.
BACKGROUND:
French lawyer Pierre de Fermat famously wrote in the margin of a book that he had proved his theorem -- the idea that a certain simple equation had no solutions -- but no such proof ever was found. Inspired by this mystery, people worldwide tried to reach a solution for more than three centuries, making it the most famous unsolved problem in mathematics. Thirteen years ago, Wiles solved Fermat's Last Theorem using ideas from modern number theory. His achievement astonished the mathematical community and was reported on the front page of The New York Times and newspapers around the world.
Rubin was Wiles' first doctoral student. Before coming to UCI in 2004, Rubin taught at Princeton, Ohio State, Columbia and Stanford universities. Today, Rubin is the Edward and Vivian Thorp Endowed Chair in Mathematics. His research deals with elliptic curves and other aspects of number theory and algebraic geometry. Rubin has received many awards, including the Cole Prize in Number Theory from the American Mathematical Society and prestigious fellowships from John Simon Guggenheim and the Alfred P. Sloan foundations.