The city entered a new era last weekend when 16 of America
’s most noted mathematicians met in Morgan Hill instead of in
Palo Alto.
The city entered a new era last weekend when 16 of America’s most noted mathematicians met in Morgan Hill instead of in Palo Alto.
The scientific research board of the American Institute of Mathematics met to select which 18 problem-solving workshops – of 32 proposed – AIM will present from August 2005 to July 2006.
AIM was founded in 1994 by John Fry, founder and CEO of Fry’s Electronics and a Morgan Hill resident. AIM facilitates workshops that bring together groups of mathematicians and other scientists to work on problems ranging from basic abstract theories to very concrete applications.
The theory, said Brian Conrey, AIM’s executive director, is that people with different scientific backgrounds working together can often find solutions that people in the same discipline might not. Choosing which workshops to offer was the job of the group that included Charles Fefferman of Princeton University. Fefferman is a recipient of the Fields Medal, considered the most prestigious prize in mathematics, Conrey said. There is no Nobel Prize for math.
Of the 32 workshops proposed, one on free analysis – a hot new topic – Conrey said, was chosen, plus one on tumor-immune-chemotherapy modeling.
“That will have a wider interest,” he said.
A complete list and details of each workshop will appear soon on the AIM website along with descriptions of the institute itself and its past work.
Conrey, a Morgan Hill resident himself, said the mathematicians arrived in time for dinner Friday night, stayed at the Inn at Morgan Hill and spent Saturday and part of Sunday in meetings.
“Everybody loved the Inn and also enjoyed walking around the grounds,” Conrey said. “This was one of the most heavily attended meetings (16 of 18 board members) – they wanted to see Morgan Hill,” he joked.
Besides acres of neatly tended greens, the course was planted with a thick grove of young redwoods, through which a path meanders. The path can be used for walking or jogging.
Presently ensconced at the Palo Alto branch of Fry’s near Stanford University, AIM is expected to move permanently to Morgan Hill when a conference building is finished on the grounds of The Institute Golf Course on Foothill Avenue.
The golf course had been the subject of a long environmental and land use dispute between The Institute and the city, the water district and several environmental agencies; hurdles were overcome in early July. Part of the settlement included permission to move ahead on the building; a rendering appears on the AIM home page.
Details: www.aimath.org
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
