See the calendar below for maths seminars and events at the University of Sydney and locally.
One of our regular events is the ‘SMRI Seminar’ which takes place most Thursday afternoons, followed by our SMRI Afternoon Teas which take place at 2pm on the Quadrangle Terrace, accessed through the entry in Quadrangle Lobby P and then via the SMRI Common Room on level 4.
Upcoming seminars, workshops and events
Friday 21 August 5.30-6.30pm
Public Lecture: ‘Alan Turing’s legacy: computers, AI and some very queer mathematics’
Description: Alan Turing was a British mathematician who left a remarkable legacy which continues to influence research in computing, codebreaking, artificial intelligence and mathematical logic. Notably, much of Turing’s work was completed before the first programmable computer was released.
This talk explores his life and some of his most important and surprising results, and how they continue to influence mathematics and computing today. It is suited to a mathematically-curious audience and there is no need for any specialist knowledge or background.
About the speaker: Benjamin Burton (he/him) is a Professor in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Queensland where he teaches supercomputers how to untangle knots. His academic career spans geometry, cryptography, computer science and finance, and he has just finished serving as President of the International Olympiad in Informatics. Professor Burton is a prominent advocate for LGBTQIA+ inclusion in STEM, and an award-winning and engaging speaker who makes deep mathematics accessible and enjoyable to a wide range of audiences.
Venue: Social Sciences Lecture Theatre 200, Social Sciences Building (A02), University of Sydney, Camperdown Campus
Registration required: Click here
Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August 2026
Science at the museum – National Science Week 2026
To mark National Science Week, the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI) and the Chau Chak Wing Museum (CCWM) are collaborating on a stimulating weekend for the whole family in the museum at the University of Sydney!
This year’s theme of National Science Week is Seeds of Science: Nurturing knowledge for all. Over the weekend, you’ll get the chance to build your own Caesar cipher and learn cryptography skills to decrypt secret messages in our interactive treasure hunt, get creative with our family friendly maths craft activities and find out how the Enigma machine encrypts coded messages at one of our demonstrations.
More details: Click here
Recent events
Optimal Transport: Mini-course and Mini-workshop
Dates: Monday August 3 – Wednesday August 5
Location: SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
The three-day research event combines a mini-course and a min-workshop on optimal transport. It aims to provide a welcoming and inclusive platform for presenting research, fostering collaboration, and inspiring new research directions among participants.
The event is supported by the School of Mathematics and Statistics and the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI)
All staff, students, and anyone interested in optimal transport are warmly invited to attend, with a particular emphasis on encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration. Registration is free; however, for catering purposes, please complete the registration form.
SMRI Seminar, ‘The monopolist’s free boundary problem in the plane: an excursion into the economic value of private information’
Date: Thursday 6th August 2026 at 1.00pm
Location: SMRI Seminar Room (Macleay Building, Rm 301)
Speaker: Professor Robert McCann, University of Toronto
Abstract: The principal-agent problem is an important paradigm in economic theory for studying the value of private information: the nonlinear pricing problem faced by a monopolist is one example; others include optimal taxation and auction design. For multidimensional spaces of consumers (i.e. agents) and products, Rochet and Chone (1998) reformulated this problem as a concave maximisation over the set of convex functions, by assuming agent preferences are bilinear in the product and agent parameters. This optimisation corresponds mathematically to a convexity-constrained obstacle problem. The solution is divided into multiple regions, according to the rank of the Hessian of the optimiser.
If the monopolists costs grow quadratically with the product type we show that a partially smooth free boundary delineates the region where it becomes efficient to customise products for individual buyers. We give the first correct solution of the problem on square domains, and discover new transitions from unbunched to targeted and from targeted to blunt bunching as market conditions become more and more favourable to the seller.
SMRI Seminar, ‘AI and Humanity’s Longest Conversation’
Date: Thursday 25th June 2026 at 1.00pm
Location: The Quadrangle General Lecture Theatre (K2.05)
Speaker: Geordie Williamson, The University of Sydney
Registration: required for catering purposes
Synopsis: Mathematics has been called humanity’s longest conversation. Observations of Euclid, Pythagoras, Euler and Poincaré still occupy the minds of mathematicians today. This conversation has experienced shocks and challenges, including the crisis of foundations in the early 20th century, and the first computer assisted proofs in the second half of the 20th century. We are currently in the midst of another shock, with the rise of formal proof and the first signs of AI systems helping to produce research-level mathematics. This raises questions of fundamental importance: How should mathematicians respond to AI? Will AI systems help (or hinder) our understanding of the mathematical world? Williamson will discuss some recent developments at the interface of mathematics and AI, with the aim of having a clearer picture of this unique point in the history of mathematics.
Speaker: Geordie Williamson is Director of the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute. His research has transformed the field of representation theory and has earned international recognition. In recent years, he has helped pioneer new approaches that combine machine learning with pure mathematics, working with researchers at DeepMind and other collaborators to use artificial intelligence as a tool for discovering patterns, generating conjectures, and exploring complex mathematical structures. His current work examines how advances in AI are reshaping mathematical research, opening new possibilities for discovery while raising important questions about the future practice of mathematics.
SMRI Seminar, ‘Periods and Irrationality’
Thursday 4th June 2026 at 1 pm (Part 1) and 3 pm (Part 2), SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
Speaker: Frank Calegari, The University of Chicago
Abstract: We give a broad introduction to methods (old and new) to understand the arithmetic properties of “periods”, a broad class of numbers (which we will define in the talk) including many of the most familiar constants in mathematics.
SMRI and local events calendar
Looking for the Australian Mathematics Calendar? Click here.