PIMS Distinguished Chair Lecture Series: The Language of Forms

A journey from the Mobius strip, though affine Kac-Moody and superconformal algebras, to children's drawings.

Abstract: One of the most recurrent themes in both Physics and Mathematics, is the study and construction of objects that locally look the same. I will explain, mainly via examples and in non-technical terms, how the concept of "locally look the same" has evolved through time (mostly through some beautiful ideas of Serre and of Grothendieck).