Annual Report 2005 - Fields Institute - University of Toronto

Achim Kempf of the University of Waterloo gave the second
talk, “Discreteness vs. Continuity: From Music Recordings
to Cosmology” which discussed the significance of being
able to interchange between discrete structures and continuous
structures. The talk took an exciting tour through
the history of the discrete versus the continuous – how a
link between the two structures aided in the progression of
music recordings, the development of sampling theory, and
the partial solutions to unsolved questions remaining in the
field of mathematical physics focusing on cosmology.
The students present learned of the many options available
to them through the large variety of graduate programs at
Canadian universities, which provide a solid foundation to
future mathematicians.
New Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
October 24, 2004
Held at the Fields Institute
In the Fall the Fields Institute celebrated the election of new
members to the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of
Canada with an afternoon of lectures by a selection of the
initiates.
Elizabeth Cannon, Stephen Fienberg,
Jacques Hurtubise and Barbara Sherwood Lollar
L e c t u r e s a n d S p e c i a l E v e n t s
Both inductees from the mathematical sciences gave presentations,
as did two others working in related disciplines.
This year’s talks gave a fascinating overview of several
fields, and also promise to stimulate some new interdisciplinary
contacts.
Elizabeth Cannon
Positioning and navigation with the global positioning system:
pushing the limits
Elizabeth Cannon is Professor of Geomatics Engineering
at the University of Calgary. This is the scientific discipline
that brings us the GPS (Global Positioning System). Her
talk had three parts: the history of the development of
GPS technology (driven originally by military needs, but
now primarily by societal and commercial applications); a
description of how GPS systems work (simple mathematics
enters, like the geometry of triangulation, and also more
advanced mathematics, needed to analyze the reflection of
signals); and finally, a preview of developments yet to come:
integration of GPS with “dead reckoning”; applications to
ship clearance, to 911 services, to automation of operations
like variable rate fertilizing, and animal tracking and search
and rescue.Stephen Fienberg
Stephen Fienberg
Mathematical glimpses of statistical models for frequency data
at work
Stephen Fienberg, who is the Maurice Falk University Professor
of Statistics and Social Science at Carnegie-Mellon
University, is from Toronto and spent part of his career at
York University. He has been president of the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics. In his talk, mathematical glimpses
of statistical models for frequency data at work, he spoke
about contingency tables for high dimensional data and
their relation to algebraic geometry. By redefining the
parameters of a log-linear model in terms of various odds
ratios, one can then restrict these odds ratios in interesting
ways, leading to more robust and parsimonious models. It
is perhaps worth mentioning that, in addition to the elegant
mathematics presented in his talk, Fienberg is well known
for is work in very applied areas, and has contributed to the
dialogue on the use of US census data.
Jacques Hurtubise
Integrable systems
Jacques Hurtubise is the former Director of the Centre de
recherche mathématiques and the newly appointed Acting
Vice-Principal (Research) of McGill. Jacques, who was
a student of Nigel Hitchin, has worked in several areas,
Fields Institute 2005 ANNUAL REPORT 45