Upcoming MAMS Seminar Series
Fall 2025
10/14/2025, Tue. 2:30-3:30 pm in Clark 309
Speaker: Jesse Berezovsky (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: The Schrödinger equation, measurements, and the multiverse
Abstract: Quantum theory rests on two legs. The first is the idea that matter can be described as a wave, whose evolution in the non-relativistic case is given by the Schrödinger equation. The second is the idea that we cannot directly observe these waves, but instead postulate a set of probabilistic rules that govern what we do observe when we make a “measurement.”
The first leg results in phenomena such as interference and tunneling that would be surprising if one imagined matter to consist of billiard-ball-like particles. Stranger still is the phenomenon of entanglement of multiple particles. But the second leg is truly puzzling. In the last few decades, a picture has started to develop of how the second leg may not be required at all, but instead may emerge as a consequence of the first leg.
In this talk, I will present some simple examples of simulated few-particle wave functions that illustrate how our perceived classical reality can emerge from the behavior of quantum waves. This emergence will be illustrated by a demonstration of a macroscopic quantum measurement. The essential result is that the enormously complicated behavior of quantum entanglement at the macroscopic scale can be usefully understood using the concept of a multiverse: that the strange quantum superpositions that we know to occur for a few microscopic particles are amplified into “many worlds” that all exist simultaneously, and play out independently of each other.
This talk will be based on material drawn from my web tutorial here: http://jablab.case.edu/catland
9/30/2025, Tue. 2:30-3:30 pm in Clark 309
Speaker: Diliya Yalikun (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: Floating bodies for ball-convex bodies
Abstract: We introduce a notion of floating bodies for ball-convex sets, obtained by replacing half-spaces with Euclidean balls in the classical construction. A right derivative of volume of these floating bodies yields a new curvature-based measure that interpolates between ball-convex geometry and the classical affine surface area.
Based on joint work with C. Schütt and E. M. Werner.
9/16/2025, Tue. 2:30-3:30 pm in Clark 309
Speaker: Michał Wojciechowski (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Title: On the Mityagin-DeLeeuw-Mirkhil theorem with differential constraints
Abstract: The classical result of the authors mentioned in the title says that the uniform norm of Q(D)f is bounded by the uniform norms of Q_j(D)f, j=1,2,…,k for functions f of compact support if and only if Q is in the span of Q_j’s (here Q and Q_j’s are homogeneous polynomials of the same degree). In the talk I will present the analogs of this result with additional constraint that the estimate holds only for f being a solution of differential equation P(D)f=0.
This is joint work with Eduard Curca.
Fall 2025
10/22/2025, Wed. 4-5 pm in Sears 439
Speaker: Professor Yuehua Cui (Department of Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University)
Title: Making Sense of Spatial Transcriptomics: Challenges, Solutions, and Prospect
Abstract: Spatial transcriptomics has transformed our ability to study gene expression within intact tissues, yet its full potential depends critically on robust statistical and computational modeling. In this talk, I will discuss recent progress and open challenges in developing statistical methods for spatial transcriptomics, focusing on three key areas: 1) spatial cell type deconvolution, where the goal is to infer cellular composition in spatially resolved data with multicellular resolution; 2) detecting cell type-specific spatially variable genes (SVG), enabling discovery of context-dependent SVGs; and 3) emerging frameworks for temporally and spatially variable gene (TSVG) detection, which integrate spatial-temporal information to capture dynamic tissue organization. Together, these advances illustrate how principled statistical models can bridge experimental complexity and biological insight in spatial omics. In the end, I will highlight future opportunities for ST analysis enabled by recent and ongoing advances in biotechnology.
Short bio: Yuehua Cui is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Probability at Michigan State University. His research focuses on statistical genetics and genomics, with an emphasis on gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, multi-omics data integration, causal inference, and spatial transcriptomics. He has published extensively in leading journals such as Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research, and Annals of Applied Statistics. Dr. Cui is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a member of the International Statistical Institute. He currently serves as an Academic Editor for PLOS Computational Biology and Associate Editor for several journals in statistical and computational genomics.
10/1/2025, Wed. 4-5 pm in Sears 439
Speaker: Professor Jenny Brynjarsdottir (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: Teaching and Learning Statistics and Math with ChatGPT – discussion
Abstract: I will share some insights from a workshop I attended this summer named “Teaching and Learning Statistics with ChatGPT 4.0”. Following that, I will facilitate discussions about LLMs and teaching and mentoring students. Possible discussion topics include: (How) should we incorporate LLMs and chatbots into statistics and mathematics courses? and Do (and in what way) these new chatbots change what and how we teach statistics and mathematics?
Fall 2025
Fall 2025
10/15/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Johnny Taylor (CWRU)
Title: Picard Infinity Groupoids
Abstract: 1The Stable Homotopy Hypothesis claims an equivalence between Picard n-groupoids equipped with categorical equivalences and stable homotopy n-types attached with stable equivalences. We have only one problem with this in the globular setting: there is no existing notion of Picard n-groupoid in the literature past n=2. We correct this and construct the first globular model of Picard Infinity groupoids.
10/8/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Runhan Wang (CWRU)
Title: Introduction to Bredon homology
Abstract: Homology is an algebraic invariant of spaces. Bredon homology is the analogous algebraic invariant of G-spaces (for a group G).
10/1/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Reeve Johnson (CWRU)
Title: Much to Chu On: A Recipe for *-Autonomous Categories
Abstract: Sometimes one ingredient in a dish makes all the difference, like a dash of Greek yogurt in your boxed mac and cheese. If one object in a symmetric closed monoidal category serves as a global dualizing object, then we have ourselves a robust, hearty, *-autonomous category. Sometimes we are missing that one special ingredient (Greek yogurt also makes for excellent smoothies), but there are still ways of making the intended dish delicious. The Chu construction takes any symmetric closed monoidal category and makes a *-autonomous category out of its components. How? Well, this abstract is just the appetizer! Come to the talk for the full course meal.
9/17/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Reeve Johnson (CWRU)
Title: All the Categories Who Independent: A *-autonomous category prime
Abstract: You’re familiar with the unit interval as a poset. You’ve seen that the double dual of a finite dimensional vector space is isomorphic to the vector space. You attended my talk on polycategories last semester. (Right?) What do all of these have in common? Why, *-autonomous categories, of course! In this talk, we will explore the structure of *-autonomous categories and dive into numerous examples.
9/10/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Jordan Sawdy (University of Kentucky)
Title: Generalized Character Theory via Monoidal Traces
Abstract: In linear algebra, the trace of a square matrix is defined to be the sum of its diagonal entries. Though quite simple to define, this operation enjoys several nice properties that make it useful for producing invariants of vector spaces and associated structures. One such invariant is the character of a group representation. In this talk, we will look at a generalization of the trace to symmetric monoidal categories introduced by Dold and Puppe and use it to define “generalized characters” (with the representation-theoretic character arising as a special case). We will see that these characters behave nicely with respect to certain adjunctions in a way that generalizes the formula for the character of an induced representation. Finally, I will mention my work on a bicategorical instantiation of this story and its algebro-geometric interpretation, following a 2021 paper of Hoyois, Safranov, Scherotzke, and Sibilla.
9/3/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Johnny Taylor (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: Globularly modelling E_infinity Spaces
Abstract: We construct a theory for globular symmetric monoidal infinity-groupoids and begin the
process of using them to model E_infinity spaces.
8/27/2025, Wed. 1-2 pm in AW Smith B01
Speaker: Johnny Taylor (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: Controlled Theories
Abstract: Classically, a Lawvere theory may be presented with generators and relations which determine the structure of its models. This is fine to handle notions of algebras in the category of Sets but fails in higher dimensions due to conflicting structure data in a Lawvere theory. Controlled theories as introduced by the speaker are a framework for
categorical algebra which extends Lawvere theories and consists of generators, relations and an additional control component which includes into the presentation. The control component ensures that the issue of conflicting structure data is non-existent. We begin to show that this extension serves as a natural framework to do higher categorical algebra.
Fall 2025
10/10/2025, Tue. 3-4 pm in Clapp 201
Speaker: Jake Hinds (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: How computers will take over the planet or something idk
Abstract: The modern day is obsessed with making computers be able to compute more and more and ideally compute everything we could hope for. This talk will present a variation of Alan Turning’s proof that such a dream is unattainable, as well as present different (but equivalent) definitions for what could a computer hope to compute, including Turning’s original idea of Turning computability as well as general recursion, which will require a brief discussion on recursion, which will require a brief discussion on recursion, which will require a brief discussion on recursion, which will…
10/3/2025, Tue. 3-4 pm in Nord 356
Speaker: Reeve Johnson (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: This talk is false
Abstract: Yes, this is yet another grad student mathematician giving a talk on riddles, conundrums, and paradoxes. But has that mathematician ever paired these with clips from Yu-Gi-Oh!?
9/19/2025, Tue. 3-4 pm in Nord 356
Speaker: Aaron Huntley (Case Western Reserve University)
Title: The Mathematics of Juggling
Abstract: 40% of all jugglers are mathematicians. As a consequence there is a rich theory of juggling and the study of it can unlock cool new tricks for even amature jugglers. Come and watch a demonstration of this in action!