Timeline for Lunch seminars for PhD students
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 18, 2021 at 2:42 | comment | added | dvitek | Note also that the applied math program at Princeton had (and presumably still has) its own graduate pizza lunch seminar, so while many applied math students attended the pure math seminars (and vice versa), no applied math students were invited to speak in the pure math graduate seminar. (This seems to have held true through at least 2019-20.) | |
| Oct 18, 2021 at 2:38 | comment | added | dvitek | For what it's worth, I think that Willie's comment is no longer applicable. I pulled up a calendar from when I was co-organizing the graduate student seminar (2015-16), and the breakdown by subject was: algebraic geometry 2, differential geometry/geometric analysis 6, functional analysis 1, geometric topology 5, logic 1, number theory 8 (4 algebraic/4 analytic). I think this is a reasonable cross-section of the graduate population at the time (albeit not of mathematics as a whole, of course). Some of the improvement since Willie's time is no doubt due to previous commenters in this thread. | |
| Oct 16, 2021 at 17:16 | comment | added | Will Sawin | @WillieWong That's a shame! I would, though, frame this a little differently for seminars targeted at a set of multiple linked communities with overlaps like the pure math department. There the goal might be to have everyone understand the beginning and gradually lose people over time, with each person hopefully learning something new before they're lost, as in a typical research seminar, or to ensure that most people understand and learn through most of the talk by discussing a niche but easy-to-understand topic, as in the best grad student seminar talks. | |
| Oct 16, 2021 at 17:08 | comment | added | quarague | I know the Dartmouth math department had and probably still has a grad student seminar which works essentially the same way. As the department is much smaller it did cover more or less everything math grad students where able and willing to present. Organised by grad students, department rule was simple: as long as their is a (math) talk, department pays for pizza for everyone. | |
| Oct 16, 2021 at 11:18 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Stefan Kohl♦ | ||
| Oct 15, 2021 at 21:28 | comment | added | Peter Humphries | This answer made me go back in time and find an old email that Will Sawin sent me in 2013, which reads: "Nate [Dowlin] and I think you [and Matthew De Courcy-Ireland] should be the GSS organizers this year. The rule is that, unless you have a convincing reason you can't, you have to do it. Can you do it? Best, Will". At the end of the following year, I also had the pleasure of voluntelling two first year graduate students to be the next organisers. | |
| Oct 15, 2021 at 16:24 | comment | added | Willie Wong | I should note that when I was at Princeton, the seminar mostly failed both of Will's suggestions. With personality being a factor, most of the people who spoke at the seminar were algebraic geometers or number theorists, and except for the few analytic number theorists (or those who interface with them), there were little attempt in making sure ignoramuses like me can understand what's going on. | |
| Oct 15, 2021 at 14:36 | comment | added | Wojowu | An option to consider would be offering different possible talk lengths. Most seminars I'm aware of have talks either 30, 60 or 90 minutes, or a variant removing 5 or 10 minutes to allow for questions. You could for instance suggest the speakers choose either a 25 or 50 minute slot for their talks, or something like that. | |
| Oct 15, 2021 at 14:18 | comment | added | Will Sawin | @aglearner I don't know a reason to decide against the typical math talk length of an hour or 50 minutes. | |
| Oct 15, 2021 at 14:10 | comment | added | aglearner | Thanks a lot for your thoughts Will! What would be an "optimal" duration of such talks? | |
| Oct 15, 2021 at 14:05 | history | answered | Will Sawin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |