Sep 20
Math/Stats Colloquium: Kevin Kwan
Speaker: Kevin Kwan (Columbia/University College London)
Title: Chebyshev and his Love of Prime Numbers
Abstract: P. L. Chebyshev (1821-1894) was considered to be the father of the Russian school of mathematics and is known for his vast, foundational contributions to statistics and probability theory. Probably lesser known to people is his fascination with the distributions of prime numbers. Chebyshev bravely stepped foot in this area filled with plenty of conjectures and big mysteries. Despite the fact that he only wrote a couple of papers on primes, it is just remarkable how many spectacular results he obtained using simple and elegant ideas. His original ideas have opened up new frontiers and have continued to make an impact on modern-day number theory. This talk will be a tour of Chebyshev's legacy in number theory.