Category: Switzerland

Upcoming events!

There will be quite a few number-theoretic activities that I will be involved-in this year. In chronological order:

(1) In March, on Friday the 15th and Saturday the 16th, there will first be the 10th edition of the ETH-EPFL Number Theory Days, this time in Lausanne. The web page is currently not very informative (except for links to the previous editions…), but the speakers this year will be L. Berger (ENS Lyon), E. Lindenstrauss (Hebrew University), H. Oh (Brown University), N. Templier (Princeton University) and J. Wolf (École Polytechnique). This is organized by Ph. Michel and myself.

(2) Immediately following, there will be a conference on “Equidistribution in number theory and dynamics” at the Forschungsinstitut für Mathematik of ETH, organized jointly by M. Einsiedler, E. Lindenstrauss, Ph. Michel and myself, from March 18 to 22. There is a web page with the current list of speakers. We would especially like to invite young mathematicians to apply here for financial support if they wish to attend this conference (the deadline indicated is January 15th, but a few more days should not hurt).

(3) During the first week of June, again at FIM, G. Wustholz and myself are organizing a conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Number Theory Seminar at ETH. Additional details will appear soon….

(4) Finally, from June 17 to 21, in sunny Marseille, R. de la Bretèche, Ph. Michel, J. Rivat and myself are co-organizing a conference on Analytic Number Theory in honor of É. Fouvry’s 60th birthday. This will be held at CIRM, which is a also a very nice place indeed to do mathematics. The web page for the conference is here; registration to the conference should be done on the CIRM website (the registration form is not there yet).

The rights of frogs of toads

How more considerate of our amphibian cousins can you get?

(Translation: “Amphibian migration / Obere Geerenstrasse / From the beginning of Mars to the end of Mars / 18:00 afternoon to 06:30 morning / Inaccessible”)

For an additional Swiss note, the next panel, which unfortunately I couldn’t photograph in the same frame, was a reminder that their is a votation this Sunday.

Number Theory Days 2012

Since 2005, the number theorists at ETH Zürich and at EPF Lausanne organize every year the Number Theory Days, which present five talks, in all areas of number theory, over two days. (Actually, I’ve seen one web page claim that the tradition started in 2004, but I didn’t find any other reference for it…)

The 2012 edition will be held in Zürich on March 30 and 31, co-organized by Philippe Michel and myself, with the support of the FIM. Here is the official web page and the beautiful poster:

We especially encourage your researchers interested in attending (PhD students, postdocs, in particular) to write to the FIM coordinator, as indicated on the web page, to register, and to indicate if they wish to request funding for travel and local expenses.

Birds of the Léman

My last post about birds concerned the great crested grebe (which appears in a most hilarious way in Scoop — “Lord Copper,” he was saying, “no man shall call me a liar unchastised. The great crested grebe does hibernate.”)

Although a more recent week-end excursion on the Léman was richer in raptors, it was also a pleasure to watch the noble heron (Héron cendré, I guess) guarding the piers:

However, the thrilling part was to watch raptors fishing; to be precise, I think most of them were the same species

which — interpreting my bird-book — is quite likely to be the Milan noir (Milvus migrans) (it might be the Milan royal, but that seems much more unlikely). Of course, most of my attempts to photograph the fishing of the milans resulted in blurry pictures of the surface of the lake; however, some succeeded, like this one

or that one

Only in Switzerland?

I have to admit this is something almost shocking in its originality: according to a letter I just received, my rent will actually decrease next year. I had never heard of anything like that happening anywhere…