Kenneth Ribet, a noted professor of mathematics from UC Berkley, will give two lectures on Friday, June 1. The first at 10:30am in Taylor 29/30 is entitled “Elliptic Curves.” It will address elliptic curves across fields within mathematics as well as demonstrating a free and handy program called sage that can help anyone who needs to calculate elliptic curves (www.sagemath.org).

His next lecture,  “Fermat’s Last Theorem and the Modularity of Elliptic Curves” takes place in Science 118 at 4:00pm the same day. It will address the theorem itself and the story of how it was proven and sparked a NOVA documentary. Ribet himself features in this theorem’s history—along with other mathematicians including Andrew Wiles—since he worked on and proved what’s referred to as the missing piece in the theorem, or the “epsilon conjecture.”

After his contribution to Fermat’s Last Theorem, the Jurade de Saint Emillion inducted him as a Vigneron d’honneur in 1988. Ribet was also awarded the Fermat Prize in 1989 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and 2000, respectively. He’s been a professor at UC Berkley since 1978, after studying mathematics at Harvard, receiving his PhD from Princeton, and researching for two years in Paris. With his most well-known work being his contribution to Fermat’s Last Theorem, his lecture series provides the best opportunity for interested students to ask questions and explore the world of mathematics.

For more information see this flyer.

Jennifer Marcellus
CAS Student Intern