Watch the 2015 Salam Lecture Series Live

ICTP's 2015 Distinguished Salam Lectures, which starts 26 January 2015, will be streamed live on the ICTP Website.  

The week-long series, to be delivered by renowned mathematician Don Zagier, will focus on "The Magic of Modular Forms." Zagier is also an ICTP Distinguished Staff Associate, teaching graduate courses and advising ICTP doctoral students.

Modular forms are functions having an infinite group of symmetries and many beautiful properties. They were originally discovered in the context of differential equations and then became very important in number theory, but are now ubiquitous in mathematics and also in many parts of physics. Each of the five lectures--which will be related but nevertheless largely independent of one another--will highlight a different one of their many appearances:

• Classical modular forms and some of their applications in arithmetic
• Modular forms, differential equations, and the irrationality of $\zeta(3)$
• Quasimodular forms and counting problems in topology and group theory
• Mock modular forms and the string theory of black holes
• Quantum modular forms and quantum invariants of knots

ICTP's Salam Distinguished Lecture Series is an annual presentation of talks by renowned, active scientists and mathematicians. The aim is to showcase important research developments as well as provide a visionary forward view. The series is supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS).

All of the lectures will take place in the Budinich Lecture Hall starting at 16:30 GMT +1.

Related Links:

• Photos from Day 1 of Lecture Series
• ICTP profile of Don Zagier 
• Salam Distinguished Lecture Series (video-recorded lectures)