The intricate relations of humor in intergroup situations
B18.005 (Brig Campus)
The inaugural lecture is an opportunity for new professors to present themselves and their work to the international scientific community, teaching teams, students and staff. The event is also open to the general public.
The Legacy of Fermat's last THEOREM
In the 17th century, Pierre de Fermat stated – and claimed to have proved – an elegant mathematical theorem, stating that a certain equation has no solutions in the whole numbers. Generations of mathematicians tried to find a proof of this theorem, but the problem resisted attack for more than 350 years, until it was solved in 1995 by Andrew Wiles and Richard Taylor. Professor David Loeffler will explain the problem, and some of the beautiful and intricate ideas that played a role in its solution; and he will explain some more recent mathematical developments arising from the same circle of ideas which are still the focus of intense research today.
David Loeffler joined UniDistance Suisse as Professor of Mathematics in November 2023. He was previously a professor at the University of Warwick in the UK. His research area is number theory, particularly focussing on modular forms, Galois representations, and L-functions. He is the leader of the ERC research project "Shimura varieties and the BSD conjecture" (2021-26). He is a member of the editorial boards of Mathematika, Publicacions Mathematiques and Research in Number Theory.