Endre Szemerédi has been awarded the Abel Prize for 2012

Timothy Gowers just announced that  Endre Szemerédi has been awarded the Abel Prize for 2012. The citation reads:

"for his fundamental contributions to discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science, and in recognition of the profound and lasting impact of these contributions on additive number theory and ergodic theory."

This is a truly major day for discrete mathematics and TCS.  Look at  the Abel Prize web site and at the written version of the talk by Timothy Gowers,  addressed to a general audience, for more details.

ICE-TCS Annual Report for 2011

The ICE-TCS annual report for 2011 is now available. The main aims of our small centre are to establish TCS as a visible research area in Iceland, to attract students to it and to organize high quality TCS events in the country. We have been at it since 2005 and we hope to keep going.

Third Talk in the Alan Turing Year at Reykjavík University

The third talk in the Alan Turing Year at Reykjavík University was delivered last Thursday by Bjarni V. Halldórsson and dealt with Alan Turing's work on mathematicalbiology. (The event was organized jointly with the Icelandic Mathematical Society.) The audio of the talk is here in .avi format. The slides for the talk are here in .pdf format. Enjoy. 

This coming Thursday, Magnús M. Halldórsson will deliver a talk entitled The million dollar question: P vs. NP, and the legacy of Turing. I will post the audio of the talk as soon as it becomes available.

What does our job as academics consist of?

At this time of the year, my university produces its annual magazine. For good or for worse, typically I cannot resist the temptation to put pen to paper and to contribute one or two pieces to that publication. This year has been no exception, and I ended up writing a piece, aimed at students and the general public, that tries to explain what our jobs consist of. The reason for offering this specific contribution to the university magazine is that I have been feeling for a while that our students do not know what we do. And if they do not, what are the chances that anyone else will?

The result is Unveiling the Ivory Tower: The academic's art of work, just in case it may be of interest to any of my readers.