Max Planck Institute for Mathematics

This is the fourth of a series of  short workshops jointly organized by the Geometry/Topology groups in Bonn, Nijmegen, and Utrecht, all situated along the Lower Rhine. The focus lies on the development and application of new structures in geometry and topology such as Lie groupoids, differentiable stacks, Lie algebroids, generalized complex geometry, topological quantum field theories, higher categories, homotopy algebraic structures, higher operads, derived categories, and related topics.

John L. Heilbron is Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, and Honorary Fellow, Worcester College, Oxford. His talk is drawn from material in and reflections on his recent books, Galileo (2010) and (with Finn Aaserud) Love, literature, and the quantum atom. Niels Bohr's 1913 trilogy revisited (2013), both from Oxford University Press.

The music theorist Thomas Noll, currently a guest at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, will give a public lecture about his research on the relation between music and mathematics.

The "Eleventh Arbeitstagung of the Second Series" is dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Hirzebruch who started the Arbeitstagung in 1957. The talks will be published in a proceedings volume. The traditional boat trip on the Rhine will be on Sunday, May 26, the reception by the Rektor in the Festsaal of the University will be on Monday, May 27.