Simons Lecture Series

The Department of Mathematics annually presents the Simons Lecture Series to celebrate the most exciting mathematical work by the very best mathematicians of our time. The format of this lecture series has evolved since its inception in 1999, and now includes two weeks of lectures— one in pure mathematics and the other in applied mathematics— given each spring.

We are grateful to our good friend Jim Simons for providing the financial backing of these lectures.

2024 Lectures

Elon Lindenstrauss

Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Einstein Institute of Mathematics

February 13, 14, 15 2024

4:30pm, Room 2-190

Reception: 4pm, 2-290

Rigidity in Homogeneous Dynamics

Video Recordings (MIT Login required)

  • Lecture 1:
    Rigidity of unipotent flows and quantitative equidistribution
  • Lecture 2:
    Rigidity of higher rank diagonalizable actions
  • Lecture 3:
    Time change rigidity of unipotent flows

Lenka Zdeborova

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

April 23, 24, 25 2024

4:30pm, Room 2-190

Reception: 4pm, 2-290

Computation through the lens of spin glasses

  • Lecture 1:
    Phase transitions in computational problems
  • Lecture 2:
    Inference, learning and optimization in complex landscapes I
  • Lecture 3:
    Inference, learning and optimization in complex landscapes II
Simons Lecture Poster 2024
Simons Lecture Poster 2024

Simons Lectures Over the Years


2024: Elon Lindenstrauss, Lenka Zdeborova

2022: Bhargav Bhatt, Cynthia Dwork

2020: (postponed) Bhargav Bhatt, Cynthia Dwork

2019: June Huh, Alexander Barvinok

2018: Stephen Boyd, Sylvia Serfaty

2017: Yuval Peres, Martin Hairer

2016: Michael P. Brenner, Maryam Mirzakhani (cancelled due to illness)

2015: Leslie Greengard, Laure Saint-Raymond

2014: Daniel Spielman, Ben Green

2013: Emmanuel Candès, Raphaël Rouquier

2012: Alexander Lubotzky, László Lovász

2011: Steven Strogatz, Manjul Bhargava

2010: Peter Winkler, Andrei Okounkov

2009: Étienne Ghys, Robert Shapire

2008: Peter Teichner, John Conway

2007: Terry Tao, David Donoho

2006: Akshay Venkatesh, Yves Couder

2005: Noga Alon, Nigel Hitchin

2004: Wendelin Werner

2003: Grigory Perelman

2002: Robert MacPherson

2001 Fall: Peter Shor

2001 Spring: Laurent Lafforgue