See the calendar below for future seminars and events.
Following every Thursday seminar, attendees are welcome to come to one of our SMRI Afternoon Teas which take place on Thursday afternoons at 2pm on the Quadrangle Terrace, accessed through the entry in Quadrangle Lobby P and via the SMRI Common Room on level 4.
Upcoming and current events: seminars, workshops and course
SMRI Seminar, ‘Physical measures, intermittent dynamics and random walks‘
Speaker: Ian Melbourne, University of Warwick
Date & time: Thursday 30th April 2026 at 1 pm
Location: SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
Abstract: The classical Birkhoff ergodic theorem discusses almost sure convergence of time averages to space averages. (It is a generalisation of the strong law of large numbers in probability theory.) However, in examples the almost sure convergence is often on a set of zero volume in phase space.
A physical measure is one where convergence of time averages to space averages holds for continuous observables on a set of positive volume. Equivalently, a physical measure is one that is the weak* limit of empirical measures on a set of positive volume.
We consider systems with no physical measure and characterise the weak* limits and distributional limits of empirical measures in such situations. Examples include intermittent maps, random walks on the integers and random walks on Y-shaped regions (imagine the integers with 3 (several) directions and 3 (several) points at infinity). As far as we know, our results are new even for the simple symmetric random walk on the integers.
This is joint work with Douglas Coates and Amin Talebi.
Seminar on Canonical Bases in Representation Theory
Dates and times: Wednesdays from 10 am –12 pm for the seminar, followed by a weekly exercise session from 1 pm –2 pm, starting from Wednesday 4th March, 2026
Location: SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
Details: In this seminar, we aim to study the answers of the following motivating questions regarding irreducible representations of semisimple Lie algebras and related structures:
- How can we compute their characters?
- How can we compute tensor product decompositions?
- What are “canonical bases” for these modules?
A powerful tool introduced in the early 1990s, known as the canonical basis (Lusztig) or crystal basis (Kashiwara), provides a model to answer these questions.
We will start by learning about prototypical constructions that serve as motivation, before proceeding to the construction and properties of these modern bases: first studying Lusztig’s approach, and then Kashiwara’s approach.
This seminar will focus on the main ingredients and recipes used to motivate, construct and describe these bases: Kazhdan-Lusztig bases, Gelfand-Tsetlin bases, Lusztig’s algebraic construction, Lusztig’s geometric/topological construction, and Kashiwara’s crystal/global bases. More information on the Canonical Bases in Representation Theory website.
Celebrating Women in Mathematics
Date and time: Tuesday 12 May 5 pm –7 pm
Location: The Quad Seminar Room S421 (A13.04.S421)
Join us for an evening celebrating women in mathematics here at the University of Sydney. All welcome.
Featuring talks from:
Neda Khodabakhsh Joniani
Nalini Joshi
Madeline Nurcombe
Pratibha Panwar
And a special screening: Je suis Sophie Germain
Pizza and light refreshments will be provided, please register here for catering purposes.
For event enquiries, please contact [email protected].
