Weierstrass Lecture 2017
Professor Dr Martin Hairer
(University of Warwick, GB)
Title: Taming infinities
Abstract: Some physical and mathematical theories have the unfortunate feature that if one takes them at face value, many quantities of interest appear to be infinite! Various techniques, usually going under the common name of "renormalisation" have been developed over the years to address this, allowing mathematicians and physicists to tame these infinities. We will tip our toes into some of the mathematical aspects of these techniques and we will see how they have recently been used to make precise analytical statements about the solutions of some equations whose meaning was not even clear until now
Historical Lecture
Prof Dr Walter Purkert
(University of Bonn)
Title: Felix Hausdorff as philosopher and man of letters
Abstract : Felix Hausdorff (1868-1942) was a very versatile mathematician. He founded general topology as an independent mathematical discipline and made significant contributions to general and descriptive set theory, measure theory, functional analysis, algebra, probability theory and actuarial mathematics.
In addition to mathematics, he had a second passion at a young age - philosophy and literature. Under the pseudonym Paul Mongré, he published a volume of aphorisms, a book of epistemological criticism, a volume of poetry, a rather successful play and 16 essays, mostly in leading literary journals. This part of his oeuvre, to which the extensive volumes VII and VIII of the Hausdorff Edition are dedicated, will be outlined in the lecture.