On Wednesday 2 December 2015, Dr. Jean-Marc Schlenker, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Luxembourg, will be holding his inaugural lecture on 'Three-dimensional geometric structures and Euclidean polyhedra'.
The geometric study of polyhedra in Euclidean space is one of the oldest subjects in mathematics, but one on which progress is still ongoing. Dr. Schlenker will present two elementary but recent results: one, answering a question plaguing mathematicians since 1832, characterises the combinatorial structures of polyhedra that can be inscribed in a quadric, whilst the other is a rigidity statement for polyhedra that are convex in a weak sense only. In both cases the proofs rely on ideas developed for understanding geometric structures on 3-dimensional menifolds, a main focus of contemporary geometry, and in particular hyperbolic and anti-de Sitter structures. Ideas and motivations from mathematical physics play a key role.
The lecture will take place from 18:00 to 20:00 at the Kirchberg Campus of the University of Luxembourg, room B02, 6 rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, 1359 Luxembourg.
Photo by Martin Hunt
