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 courses
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.
Recent events
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.
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.
SMRI and local events calendar
Looking for the Australian Mathematical Calendar? Click here.