The Fifth International Conference on

History of Modern Mathematics

18～24 August 2019, Xi’an, China

The Second Circular (October 2018)

 

Organized by

Institute for Advanced Study in History of Science, Northwest University

 

In Association with

Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan

IRMA, Université de Strasbourg

Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen

Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu-Paris Rive Gauche, CNRS

Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford

Chinese Society for the History of Mathematics

 

I. Organization

1. Scientific Committee

 

Anjing Qu, Northwest University, China

 

(1).History of Modern Mathematics in General

Catherine Goldstein, CNRS, France

Christopher David Hollings, University of Oxford, UK

Jesper Lützen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

 

(2). Cohomology Theories and Algebraic Geometry: from Poincaré to Grothendieck

Lizhen Ji, University of Michigan, USA

Norbert Schappacher, Université de Strasbourg, France

Chang Wang, Northwest University, China

 

2. Organizing Committee

Chen Kesheng, Northwest University, Xi’an

Deng Mingli, Hebei Radio and TV University, Shijiazhuang

Guo Shirong, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Huhehaote

Ji Zhigang, Shaihai Jiaotong University, Shanghai

Ren Xinxi, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen

Tang Quan, Northwest University, Xi’an

Wang Chang, Northwest University, Xi’an

Wang Qingjian, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian

Xu Zelin, Donghua University, Shanghai

Xue Youcai, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou

Yuan Min, Northwest University, Xi’an

Zhang Hong, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu

Zhao Jiwei, Northwest University, Xi’an

 

Secretary

Wang Chang, Northwest University, Xi’an

 

II. Program

Five days of scientific sessions are planned.

1. Invited Lecturers

(1).History of Modern Mathematics in General

Leo Corry, < corry@post.tau.ac.il>,Tel Aviv University, Israel

Simon Decaens,<simon.decaens@univ-paris8.fr>, University of Paris 8, SPHERE, France

Christophe Eckes,< christophe.eckes@univ-lorraine.fr>, Archives Poincaré, France 

Isobel Jessie Falconer, < ijf3@st-andrews.ac.uk>, University of St Andrews, UK

 

Catherine Goldstein, <catherine.goldstein@imj-prg.fr>, CNRS, France

 

Livia Maria Giacardi, <livia.giacardi@unito.it>, University of Turin, Italy

 

Christopher David Hollings, < christopher.hollings@maths.ox.ac.uk>, University of Oxford, UK

 

Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen, < thk@math.ku.dk >, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

 

François Lê, < fle@math.univ-lyon1.fr >, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France

 

Jesper Lützen, < lutzen@math.ku.dk >, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Anjing Qu, <qaj@nwu.edu.cn>, Northwest University, China

 

Gatien Ricotier,<ricotiergatien@gmail.com>, IRMA, France

James Ritter, <jim.ritter@wanadoo.fr>, CNRS, France

 

Erhard Scholz ,<escholz@uni-wuppertal.de>, University of Wuppertal, Germany

 

(2).Cohomology Theories and Algebraic Geometry: from Poincaré to  Grothendieck

Enrico Arbarello, <enrico.arbarello@gmail.com>, University of Rome, Italy

 

Arnaud Beauville,<beauville@unice.fr>, Laboratoire J.-A. Dieudonné Université de Nice Parc Valrose, France

 

Jean-Benoît Bost, <jean-benoit.bost@u-psud.fr>, Université de Paris-Sud, France

 

Pierre Cartier, <cartier@ihes.fr>, IHES, France

 

Lawrence Ein, <ein@math.uic.edu>, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

 

Akito Futaki, <afutaki@ms.u-tokyo.ac.jp>, University of Tokyo and Tsinghua University, Japan

 

Carlo Gasbarri, <gasbarri@math.unistra.fr>, Université de Strasbourg, France

 

Robin Hartshorne, <robin@hartshorne.net>, University of Berkeley, USA

 

Daniel Huybrechts ,<huybrech@math.uni-bonn.de>, University of Bonn, Germany

 

Luc Illusie, <luc.illusie@wanadoo.fr>, Université Paris-Sud, France

Velusamy Inthumathi, <inthumathi65@gmail.com>, Nallamuthu Gounder Mahalingam College, India

Rob de Jeu, <r.m.h.de.jeu@vu.nl>, Vrije Unversiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 

Lizhen Ji,< lji@umich.edu>, University of Michigan, USA

Ramadevi Jothilingam, <ramasai1970@gmail.com>, Nallamuthu Gounder Mahalingam College, India

 

Yujiro Kawamata ,<yukawama@yahoo.co.jp>, University of Tokyo, Japan

 

Ralf Krömer, <rkroemer@uni-wuppertal.de>, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany

 

Colin McLarty, <colin.mclarty@case.edu>, Case Western Reserve University, USA

 

Donal O'Shea, <doshea@ncf.edu>, New College of Florida, USA

 

Thomas Peternell, <thomas.peternell@uni-bayreuth.de>, Universität Bayreuth, Germany

 

Miles Reid, <Miles.Reid@warwick.ac.uk>, University of Warwick, UK

 

Norbert Schappacher, < schappacher@math.unistra.fr>, Université de Strasbourg, France

Joachim Schwermer,<Joachim.Schwermer@univie.ac.at>, University of Vienna, Austria

 

Kenji Ueno, <Kenji.Ueno@mb7.seikyou.ne.jp> University of Kyoto and Yokkaichi University, Japan

 

Sampei Usui , <usui3@taupe.plala.or.jp>, University of Osaka, Japan

 

Claire Voisin, <claire.voisin@imj-prg.fr>, College of France, France

 

2. Scientific Sessions for Contributed Papers

Plenary lecture and Panel session will be organized on specific topics.

 

3. Language: English

 

4. Tentative Schedule

 

5. Topic

CULTURES AND ELEMENTS OF PRACTICES IN MATHEMATICS, 1800-1970

The topic of “mathematical practice” or of “professional cultures in mathematics” is one that has become quite active in contemporary research and arouses interest from historians as well as philosophers of mathematics.

This is thus a topic that is particularly appropriate to bring together historians and philosophers of mathematics, which is one of the aims of the series of conference on history of modern mathematics.

The series of conference aims to address the issues of “practice” and “professional cultures” for history of mathematics between 1800 and 1970.

One of its goals is to understand how these concepts can help us better understand mathematics during this long century. Conversely, the question will be raised of how our understanding of these concepts can be improved if we are to use them to approach the history of mathematics during this time span.

The series of conference will invite participants to approach these issues with a breadth so far unprecedented.

First, in addition to suggesting to approach the 19^th and 20^th centuries from the point of view of professional cultures and practices, we shall invite contributions that bear on mathematics considered globally, that is with contributions dealing with Europe, the United states, China, Japan, the Arab world, India, and so on.

Another specificity is that, in relation to the topic chosen, we would like to invite contributions that will not only focus on mathematics as an academic discipline, but also deal with mathematical practices and cultures outside the academia.

In addition, we would like to include, within our scope, the history of disciplines such as history and philosophy of mathematics. Within which context did they develop? Which ties did they have with the various mathematical cultures and practices? In which ways is it important to take them into account to deal with the topic envisioned?

Finally, we shall invite present-day working mathematicians to share with us how they approach the motley of mathematical practices today.

We are deeply convinced that the better understanding of modern mathematical activity that such an approach can yield will be helpful for mathematics education at all levels.

 There are two main issues at this session, they are:

(1). History of Modern Mathematics in General

Research in the history of modern mathematics has been enriched by new directions in recent years. The results have included new emphases in both disciplines, with diverse and far-reaching consequences. Based on the history, we see a renewed interest in the philosophical issues of various kinds, on the transmission of mathematical knowledge from local settings to global norms, on networks of scholars and networks of texts, on the nature and importance of application in mathematics, and on a reassessment of the importance of computation in all its forms.

The purpose of the topic proposed is to assemble senior scholars active in these fields, junior scholars whose work promises to be transformative, and scholars who are ambitious to acquire new approaches while presenting contributed papers on work of their own for comment by their peers.

With a broadly inclusive scope we hope to build on the positive experiences of earlier meeting to continue to build a Chinese and international research community and to build links for the future.

(2).Cohomology Theories and Algebraic Geometry: from Poincaré to Grothendieck

One trend of current mathematics is the unity between seemingly different subjects, and (co-)homology theories account for one important thread which runs through large part of today's mathematics. The interaction between cohomology theories and algebraic geometry has been a particularly fruitful and active one. One purpose of this topic is to understand how cohomological methods have changed algebraic geometry from Poincare to Grothendieck, and indeed all through the twentieth century, often via interaction with other mathematical disciplines, esp. topology.

More specifically, we are inviting experts from both algebraic geometry and related subjects and historians of mathematics to gain a systematic understanding of the following topics:

(1). Homology in the works of Poincaré and Picard

(2). From Lefschetz to the variation of Hodge structures

(3). The apparent absence of cohomolgy in Italian Algebraic Geometry and its rewriting by van der Waerden, Zariski, Weil

(4). Sheaf cohomology and applications: works of Serre, Cartan, Kodaira and others

(5). Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch and generalizations, Chern characters

(6). Grothendieck, schemes and homological algebra

(7). Chow rings

(8). So-called Weil cohonologies

(9). Generalized cohomology theories, such as K-theory, motives, motivic cohomology

It might be helpful to quote from an article in the Bulletin of the AMS by Zariski in 1956:

"The cohomological methods, in conjunction with the powerful tool of harmonic integrals, were remarkably effective in the solution of global complex-analytic problems in general, and of problems of classical algebraic geometry in particular (Chern, Hirzebruch, Kodaira-Spencer, Serre, and others). It is natural to ask whether the cohomological methods can be equally effective in abstract algebraic geometry where the method of harmonic integrals is no longer available.”

https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183520530

One specific goal of this conference is to understand the development of cohomology methods after this article of Zariski, in particular Grothendieck's Tohoku paper

"Sur quelques points d'algèbre homologique." Tohoku Math. J. 9 (1957) 119--221,and his vision set out  in his ICM 1958 talk:

"The cohomology theory of abstract algebraic varieties". 1960 Proc. Internat. Congress Math. in Edinburgh, 1958, pp. 103--118.

Bringing together experts from algebraic geometry and from the history of mathematics we hope to achieve a global understanding of the kind of transformation that the cohomological point of view has brought about. The goal will be to tell the story of a collection of invariants of geometrical objects which have emancipated themselves to become an autonomous realm of objects.

We also hope to publish a book covering the above topics based on talks of this conference.

We believe that bringing together experts in algebraic geometry with some common interest in the historical development on cohomological methods in algebraic geometry will be both fruitful and enjoyable.

 

III. Practicalities

1. Registration

Registration Fees (Registration covers the book of abstracts, all the conference sessions, including the banquet and all meals. It does not cover accommodation)

 

 

Registration fee is paid upon arrival. We normally expect that participants will arrive on August 18 and depart on August 24.

 

2. Accommodation

To be confirmed further before announcing.

 

3.  Deadline of Registration form, Title and Abstract

Please send back your registration form before 1 May 2019.

Please send title of your talk before 1 June 2019.

We expect that you send the abstract of your paper before 1 June 2019.

All emails sent to Prof. Chang Wang: heart_cw@126.com.

We accept *.doc and *.txt files.

 

4.  Webpage and Contact persons

http://ichmm.nwu.edu.cn/

Prof. Chang Wang, Northwest University, heart_cw@126.com

 

 

REGISTRATION FORM

1. Full Name: __________________________

2. Nationality: __________________________

3. Date and place of Birth: __________________________

4. Affiliation (University, Institute, etc.): __________________________

Department and Position: __________________________

5. Mailing Address: __________________________

6. E-mail: __________________________

7. Paper to be presented? ____________ (Yes, No)

If YES, Topic: ________________________________________

8. Accompanying Person(s)? Mr.? Ms.? Name(s) ____________________

9. Accommodation: None required (  ), Single Room (  ), Standard room (  )

10. Arrival time: _____________________________

Departure time: __________________________________

Please send the form by e-mail to: heart_cw@126.com, before 1 May 2019.