The Science of Human Possibilities

About the talk

Kumar is an accomplished mathematician. My few meetings with Kumar have been a revelation and a pleasure. In my view, he represents the apex of learning and teaching to which he has devoted his life. Note that this is NOT a technical presentation on mathematics — it will be a journey of discovery on human potential… Our thoughts about topics centre on Kumar's passion for teaching and mentoring, and guiding mentees to use their abilities to the fullest. Much of this philosophy is included in his book, The Science of Human Possibilities.

We will also discuss why so many people fear mathematics and how this fear can be overcome, so the beauty and wonder of math can be accessible to anyone. Assuming we have time and the group has interest, Kumar will describe the unravelling of the mystery of Fermat's Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles in 1994 — which Fermat postulated in 1637.

About the speaker

Vijaya Kumar Murty FRSC is an Indo-Canadian mathematician in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto, and until June 2024 was director of the Fields Institute. He earned his B.Sc. from Carleton University and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard under John Tate. He received the Coxeter–James Prize from the Canadian Mathematical Society in 1991, was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1995, shared the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize with his brother M. Ram Murty for their book on the non-vanishing of L-functions, and was named to the Canadian Mathematical Society's inaugural class of fellows in 2018.