HKIAS hosts world-famous mathematicians for international conference and distinguished lecture

(From left) Professor Sir Ball, President Boey, and Professor Ciarlet

Exceptionally talented mathematicians from around the world gathered at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) for the HKIAS International Conference on Mathematical Analysis and its Applications hosted by the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) from 17 to 18 April.

HKIAS Senior Fellows Professor Sir John Ball and Professor Philippe G. Ciarlet organised the conference. The speakers, who included some of the world’s foremost mathematicians, came from Chile, France, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the UK.

Their topics included large random matrices and PDEs, Jacobian determinants and degree theory in nonlinear elasticity and its applications, and Prandtl’s Boundary Layer Theory for Steady Sink-Type Flows, among many others.

One of the key takeaways was the strength of the relationship between CityUHK and France and a strong emphasis on successful cooperation, especially in mathematics research.

HKIAS also hosted a talk titled “On some new mathematical models and their applications”, delivered by Professor Pierre-Louis Lions, holder of the 1994 Fields Medal.

Professor Lions is one of the world’s most prominent experts in the nonlinear partial differential equations theory. He has been Chair of Partial Differential Equations and Applications at the prestigious Collège de France in Paris since 1992.

He began his HKIAS Distinguished Lecture with some historical remarks on the intrinsic connections between mathematical modelling and the development of mathematics. He explained how the branch of mathematics known as analysis had grown considerably and clearly showed how applications lead to new mathematical theories, allowing for considering new applications.

The conference received favourable responses from students, faculty members and mathematicians.

He presented two recent examples that illustrate this phenomenon: the theory of Mean Field Games and the study of systems governed by large random matrices.

He also noted the importance of interdisciplinary research. He emphasised the importance of maths as a science and a language, pointing out that maths was the world’s third most widely spoken after English and Chinese, even more commonly known than Spanish.

Professor Freddy Boey, President of CityUHK, noted in his opening remarks to the lecture how pleased he was to see so many young people at the lecture, adding that he hoped Professor Lions’ address would inspire them in their learning.