Invitation to ICTP Colloquia this week on 1 and 2 March 2017

[ICTP Director]

Dear All,

ICTP is pleased to announce that there will be two ICTP Colloquia this 
week in the Budinich Lecture Hall, LB, at 16:30 hrs.

*Wednesday 1 March 2017:*
*ICTP Colloquium by Prof. Cumrun Vafa, Harvard University  on" 
Fundamental Lessons From String Theory".*

Abstract: This talk by Cumrun Vafa reviews some of the lessons string 
theory has taught us about the fundamental laws of nature. Duality 
symmetries discovered in string theory play a key role.

Biosketch: Cumrun Vafa is a theoretical physicist whose primary area of 
research is string theory. He is the Donner Professor of Science in the 
Department of Physics at Harvard University. He won ICTP’s Dirac Medal 
in 2008 along with Juan Maldacena and Joseph Polchinski for fundamental 
contributions to superstring theory. In 2017, he received the 
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, together with Polchinski and 
Andrew Strominger, for transformative advances in quantum field theory, 
string theory, and quantum gravity. Vafa is a member of ICTP’s 
Scientific Council.

The full abstract of the talk is available at: 
http://indico.ictp.it/event/8143/

*Thursday 2 March 2017: **
**ICTP Colloquium by Prof. Alain Connes on "Irreducible Representations 
of the Higher Heisenberg Relation and Pati-Salam Model Coupled to Gravity" *

Abstract: A problem purely motivated by how geometry emerges from the 
quantum formalism gives rise to a slightly noncommutative structure and 
a spectral model of gravity coupled with matter which fits with 
experimental knowledge.

Biosketch: French mathematician Alain Connes is a professor at the 
Collège de France, IHES, and a Distinguished Professor at Ohio State 
University, USA. He is the recipient of mathematics’ top award, the 
Fields Medal (1982), as well as the Crafoord Prize (2001)

The full abstract of the talk is available at: 
http://indico.ictp.it/event/8156/

The Colloquia will be livestreamed at the given date/time at: 
http://video.ictp.it/livestream

The posters are attached.

Light refreshments will be served after both lectures.

You are all very warmly invited to attend.

Best regards,

Fernando Quevedo