Hello Everyone!
Quick Update:
1. I placed out of the core Complex Analysis course at Penn, freeing me up to do a reading course on Symplectic Topology with Prof. Block.
2. I have been neglecting my reading course because I have been occupied with the details of the Thom-Pontryagin Construction which relates homotopy classes of maps $f: M^n\to S^p$ (the p-sphere) and framed cobordism classes of closed $n-p$-dimensional manifolds. It was fun but I wasn't planning on the extra labor.
3. I just gave the pizza seminar talk on "Soliton Solutions of Integrable Systems and Hirota's Method" Friday that went really well.
4. I just looked at Penn Math Courses for Fall 2009 and there is an awesome selection!
Notable entries include:
- P. Freyd's "Calculus of Variations" Course.
- Jonathan Block will continue the 3 course sequence on Algebraic Topology with 618.
- M. Ballard's "Complex Algebraic Geometry" Course: It should be interesting to see fresh blood teach this staple of Penn.
- Joachim Krieger is teaching a course on PDEs: A subject I hope to take as a minor oral topic. Calabi Fellow Joachim Kriger was recently cited five times Terry Tao's AMS Bulletin (Jan. 09) article on "Why Are Solitons Stable?"
- Ron Donagi is teaching a course on "Mathematical Foundations of Theoretical Physics" a course that enticed me into coming to Penn, but hasn't been taught in several years.
- The Eugenio Calabi is teaching a topics course on Differential Geometry backed with W. Wylie's Ricci Flow madness.
Next year is going to be awesome!
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2 comments:
Hi Justin,
I hope you don't mind that I found you on the web by using Google.
I just want to let you know that my 12 year old son loves your Godel, Escher, Bach course.
He is an online student in British Columbia with a passionate interest in math as well as programming. He has very much enjoyed reading Godel, Escher, Bach and viewing your videos.
Every 1 or 1.5 hour video would take him a couple of days to view because he would always run to the computer to write a program to create fractal sentences or trees, etc.
I am not sure why you started one of the classes with an apology about how boring typographical number theory is, because he loved that chapter of the book.
This class is perfect for him because I am not mathematically oriented, nor do I know about computer programming, and so your class has given him a lot of pleasure.
I just thought you might like to know that your GEB class is still being viewed and appreciated.
-Maureen (Vancouver, BC)
Hi Maureen!
Thank you so much for the post! Curran and I derived so much pleasure from the course and to hear that other people are enjoying it too is a true reward.
I find it a useful trick to assume that everyone is bored by the subject matter I am teaching, so that I am either compelled to teach with more enthusiasm or to not be let down when students remain to be uninspired. I picked on TNT specifically because although it is an elegant and beautiful concept, writing down interesting mathematics requires much more time and effort than most mathematicians would care to give.
Tell your son that it sounds as if he is well on his way to a great future and if he has any general questions regarding Philosophy or Mathematics I would be more than happy to post something to answer him. This would have the added benefit that other people could observe the Socratic exchange of ideas. It has been a while since I have gone through every detail of GEB, so I might not be as capable of answering specific questions -- Forgive me!
Thanks Again!
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