Abstract: 

What do the smooth 4-dimensional Poincare conjecture (SPC4) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) have in common? In this talk, intended for a broad audience, I will explain the connection by telling two stories. One story involves some of the hardest unsolved problems in low-dimensional topology, such as the SPC4, its relative version, the slice-ribbon conjecture, etc. The other story is about the cutting-edge algorithms in machine translation. The confluence of the two leads to surprising new results and opens new doors for extending rigorous mathematical proofs into completely new domains that until recently remained entirely out of reach.

Profile:

Sergei Gukov  John D. MacArthur Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, California Institute of Technology

Honors and Awards 

• 2021 IMSAC Consortium Distinguished Lecture Series, U. Miami 

• 2019 Whittemore Lectures, Yale University 

• 2017 Bershadsky Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Harvard University 

• 2010 Takagi Lectures, Kyoto University 

• 2007-2009 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship 

• 2001-2006 Clay Mathematics Institute Long-Term Prize Fellowship 

• 2000 I.Ya.Pomeranchuk Award for Young Scientists