Join us for the Frontiers in Natural Sciences: The Dean’s Annual Lecture 2026, delivered by Geordie Williamson on the subject of ‘AI and the long conversation of mathematics’.
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Abstract
Mathematics has been called humanity’s long 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.
Synopsis
Geordie Williamson works in the structural side of mathematics, and has done early work at the interface of mathematics and AI. He has made several fundamental contributions including his proof (with Ben Elias) of the Kazhdan-Lusztig positivity conjecture, his algebraic proof of the Jantzen conjectures, and his discovery of counter-examples to the expected bounds in the Lusztig conjecture in modular representation theory. This last result came as a shock to a whole community of researchers, and has since shifted the focus away from old conjectures.
For his work he has been awarded the Chevalley Prize of the American Mathematical Society, the European Mathematics Society Prize, the Clay Research Award, the New Horizons Prize in Mathematics (with Ben Elias), the Chauvenet Prize and two ICBS Frontiers of Science Awards. He addressed the International Congress of Mathematicians as a plenary speaker in 2018, and as a public speaker in 2022 and 2026. More recently, he was awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship and the Max Planck Humboldt Research Award.
Frontiers in Natural Sciences: Dean’s Annual Lecture
Established in 2022, the Dean’s Lecture explores the breadth and variety of activity at the frontiers of natural sciences.
This annual lecture series sees world-renowned speakers, who are chosen by each department in the Faculty, discuss the future of science and the fundamental work that underpins our most ambitious endeavours.
This event will be livestreamed. More information on this will be shared closer to the event.
