HSE University and the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications Sign Cooperation Agreement
HSE University, together with its Chinese partners, will be implementing the scientific project ‘Geometry and Physics,’ which won the ‘Academic Cooperation’ competition at HSE. The International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms acts on behalf of HSE University. The Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (BIMSA), represented by a team of renowned mathematicians including Fields medallists, will also be involved in the project.
The agreement between HSE University and BIMSA was signed by HSE Vice Rector Victoria Panova and BIMSA President Shing-Tung Yau, a world-renowned mathematician and the winner of the Fields Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in mathematical sciences. Additionally, the project involves Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge professor and 2018 Fields medallist. The signed agreement covers joint scientific research, organisation of scientific events, publication of papers, development of strategies and policies for scientific collaboration, as well as other initiatives.
The Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (BIMSA), founded and supported by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the largest and youngest mathematical institute in China. BIMSA conducts advanced research in various areas of mathematics, theoretical physics, computer science, and related fields.
In December 2023, HSE University launched a competition for joint fundamental scientific projects called ‘Academic Cooperation’. The goal of the competition was to foster international scientific collaboration, expand the research agenda, and engage university students and graduates in fundamental scientific projects, thus creating an academic research culture.
The results of the competition were announced in April 2024. The selection committee opted for seven research projects, including the ‘Geometry and Physics’ project by the HSE International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms and the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications. The main focus of the project is to apply ideas of homological mirror symmetry to birational algebraic geometry. Mirror symmetry was discovered relatively recently, in the 1990s, by theoretical physicists as a physical duality between superconformal field theories. Since then, the mathematical theory of mirror symmetry has been actively developed in the 21st century.
The International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms is one of leading research centres for the study of this phenomenon. Over the past seven years, the laboratory has trained young and talented mathematicians who have obtained their PhDs in physical and mathematical sciences. In 2023, the first joint conference ‘Geometry and Physics’ was held in Moscow and featured 16 presentations, including two by Fields medallists.
‘One of the key methodological features of mirror symmetry research is that new ideas arising in theoretical physics are then developed in mathematics, while new mathematical results are interpreted in theoretical physics. Our goal is to construct and study new algebraic, birational, and categorical invariants of manifolds, based on the principles of mirror symmetry. Many of the approaches we use in our laboratory are revolutionary and groundbreaking,’ says Valery Gritsenko, Head of the HSE International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms.
Valery Gritsenko notes that the plans of the laboratory require global international collaboration, within which cutting-edge complex scientific research in fundamental mathematics and its applications is conducted.
‘Many members of the Chinese team are well-known to us. We have a solid scientific background, with several joint studies published in prestigious international journals. Collaboration with BIMSA, which has become a major hub for global mathematical activity, presents a unique opportunity for young Russian mathematicians, graduates, and students to fully engage in the global scientific process, and at one of its highest levels,’ concluded Valery Gritsenko.
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