AMSI & AUSTMS Public Lecture: The Theory of Numbers: From Ancient Greece to the 21st Century

Speaker: Professor Matthew Emerton 
Affiliation: University of Chicago

As part of the AMSI/AUSTMS biennial Mahler Lecture series, Professor Matthew Emerton (University of Chicago), will be delivering a public lecture pitched to a general maths audience on ‘The Theory of Numbers: From Ancient Greece to the 21^st Century’.

Abstract

Public Lecture: The theory of numbers, from ancient Greece to the 21st century

This lecture, aimed at members of the public interested in mathematics, will explain some of the key ideas in the theory of numbers, as developed over the last two thousand-plus years. Beginning with the theory of geometric constructions from ancient Greek geometry, and its relationship to the discovery and properties of irrational numbers, I will sketch in broad outlines how these ideas evolved, through the theory of equations and their symmetries as developed by Galois, culminating in a description of some of the contemporary aspects of the theory. My focus will be on emphasizing how symmetries of mathematical problems, some obvious but some not-so-obvious, play a hidden role in the nature of their solutions.