{"648963":{"#nid":"648963","#data":{"type":"news","title":"School of Mathematics Celebrates Two Researchers Receiving \u201cVery High Prestige\u201d Invitations to Lecture at Major Global Math Conference","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELike the Olympics, the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mathunion.org\/icm\/icm-2022\u0022\u003EInternational Congress of Mathematicians\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;only meets once every four years. Like that global athletic competition, medals are presented to those who excel. In this case, they\u0026rsquo;re presented to those with breakthrough research on subjects like topology, random matrices, combinatorics.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESimply being asked to present research at an ICM is, as Davide Castelvecchi wrote in a 2015\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/526178a\u0022\u003Estory\u003C\/a\u003E, \u0026ldquo;the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame.\u0026rdquo; So imagine the pride at the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Mathematics\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;when it learned that it will have not one, but two lecturers at the 2022 ICM, scheduled for July 6-14 in St. Petersburg, Russia.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;Associate Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.math.gatech.edu\/~jhom6\/\u0022\u003EJennifer Hom\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and Assistant Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.math.gatech.edu\/~ktikhomirov6\/\u0022\u003EKonstantin Tikhomirov\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;have accepted invitations from ICM committees to speak at the conference.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The ICM speaker invitations are a major news item in the mathematics community every four years. The invitations carry very high prestige, selected with\u0026nbsp;extreme diligence\u0026nbsp;to highlight leading breakthroughs across all of mathematics,\u0026rdquo; explains\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/people\/rachel-kuske\u0022\u003ERachel Kuske\u003C\/a\u003E, Professor and Chair of the School of Mathematics. \u0026ldquo;An invitation signals innovative research that is driving future discovery. A single invitation in any cycle is a source of great pride for the home department of the speaker, and more than one is particularly noteworthy, reflecting the impressive talent joining the School in recent years. \u0026nbsp;Of course, we are well aware that our pioneering colleagues Jennifer and Konstantin are leading the world in their fields, but we are very pleased by the community\u0026#39;s agreement, via this exceptional international recognition.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It was a very pleasant surprise to get the email,\u0026rdquo; says Hom. \u0026ldquo;It wasn\u0026rsquo;t something that was on my radar. Most mathematicians do math because they find it interesting and challenging and fun, and things like this are the icing on the cake.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe invitation also came as a surprise to Tikhomirov. \u0026ldquo;I was extremely happy, of course, and I didn\u0026rsquo;t expect it,\u0026rdquo; he says. \u0026ldquo;People usually get invited earlier. I was not really expecting this because it\u0026rsquo;s a hard thing, it\u0026rsquo;s a very rare event, once every four years.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHom echoes Kuske when she says having two Georgia Tech researchers speaking at ICM \u0026ldquo;speaks highly of the quality of math being done at the School of Mathematics.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHom hasn\u0026rsquo;t decided the\u0026nbsp;specific\u0026nbsp;topic of her lecture, but her mathematical research focuses on low-dimensional topology.\u0026nbsp;Topology is the study of shapes and spaces that can be stretched, twisted, and otherwise deformed, but never broken or torn. These spaces are called manifolds; for example, the surface of a donut is a two-dimensional manifold. Low-dimensional topology is the sub-discipline interested in topological spaces of four or fewer dimensions.\u0026nbsp;The study of manifolds can help bring simplicity to the understanding of more complex structures in math and physics.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I\u0026rsquo;m lucky enough to sit and think about totally abstract things just for the sake of finding patterns,\u0026rdquo; she says. \u0026ldquo;There\u0026rsquo;s so much more to math than what people see in high school, or what average college students see in the math class. A lot of high school math is focused on getting you to calculus, and that\u0026rsquo;s a small part of the really\u0026nbsp;cool math that\u0026rsquo;s out there.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETikhomirov\u0026rsquo;s research is in discrete probability, which tries to bring structure and predictability to chance in the form of modeling. Take a coin flip, for example. \u0026ldquo;If I could measure the parameters of the coins, and figure out how much muscle you use to flip the coin, and figure for the activity of neurons, I would be able to predict the outcome \u0026mdash; heads or tails,\u0026rdquo; he explains. \u0026ldquo;But that\u0026rsquo;s too complicated\u0026rdquo; to compute outcomes in that way.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026ldquo;\u003C\/strong\u003EProbability, in that respect, is designed to model things. So you have a complicated system, and then you can construct a model that inherits some properties of real physical systems, but at least you can make some predictions.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Jennifer Hom, Konstantin Tikhomirov will present on topology, discrete probability at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians in Russia "}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo School of Mathematics researchers will head to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2022 to lecture\u0026nbsp;at the prestigious International Congress of Mathematicians, which is held\u0026nbsp;every four years.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Jennifer Hom, Konstantin Tikhomirov will present on topology, discrete probability at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians in Russia "}],"uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2021-07-21 15:06:36","changed_gmt":"2021-08-01 22:08:19","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-07-21T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2021-07-21T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"648959":{"id":"648959","type":"image","title":"Jennifer Hom","body":null,"created":"1626879125","gmt_created":"2021-07-21 14:52:05","changed":"1626879125","gmt_changed":"2021-07-21 14:52:05","alt":"","file":{"fid":"246376","name":"Jennifer Hom.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Jennifer%20Hom.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Jennifer%20Hom.png","mime":"image\/png","size":195262,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Jennifer%20Hom.png?itok=GieJhNB9"}},"648960":{"id":"648960","type":"image","title":"Konstantin Tikhomirov","body":null,"created":"1626879259","gmt_created":"2021-07-21 14:54:19","changed":"1626879259","gmt_changed":"2021-07-21 14:54:19","alt":"","file":{"fid":"246377","name":"Konstantin Tikhomirov.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Konstantin%20Tikhomirov.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Konstantin%20Tikhomirov.png","mime":"image\/png","size":330512,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Konstantin%20Tikhomirov.png?itok=pNPiLzNS"}}},"media_ids":["648959","648960"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/news\/hom-ito-and-moffat-are-2018-cullen-peck-fellows","title":"Hom, Ito, and Moffat are 2018 Cullen-Peck Fellows"},{"url":"https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/news\/georgia-tech-geometry-and-topology-group-wins-21-million-nsf-grant","title":"Georgia Tech Geometry and Topology Group Wins $2.1 Million NSF Grant"},{"url":"https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/news\/sloan-foundation-awards-fellowships-four-georgia-tech-emory-faculty","title":"Sloan Foundation Awards Fellowships to Four Georgia Tech, Emory Faculty"}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1279","name":"School of Mathematics"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"168854","name":"School of Mathematics"},{"id":"178550","name":"Jennifer Hom"},{"id":"188312","name":"Konstantin Tikhomirov"},{"id":"188311","name":"International Congress of Mathematicians"},{"id":"14817","name":"topology"},{"id":"188314","name":"discrete combinatorics"},{"id":"173647","name":"_for_math_site_"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERenay San Miguel\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Officer II\/Science Writer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Ca href=\u0022tel:404-894-5209\u0022\u003E404-894-5209\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["renay.san@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}