DYNAMICS, TOPOLOGY, COMPLEXITY, AI, BIOLOGY, AND MINERALS
SMALE 95: A Conference in Honor of Professor Steve Smale's 95th birthday
July 21 - 22, 2025
Calvin Lab Auditorium, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Berkeley, CA
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This two day workshop will celebrate Steve Smale on his 95th birthday by covering topics relating to some of his astonishing contributions to the world of mathematics and to the world of mineral collecting.
Steve’s research is astonishing for its breadth and depth: from differential topology and “turning the sphere inside out”, to dynamical systems and finding the “horseshoe” on the beaches of Rio, to solving the Poincare conjecture for dimensions > 4 leading to the Fields medal, to economics and complexity theory, learning theory, language evolution and flocking, analyzing high dimensional data, and his current obsession with the Kuramoto model to understand the emergence of synchronization, the origins of life itself.
Steve is as well known in the mineral collectors’ world as he is in the mathematical world, his mineral collection is described as ranking among the finest in the world.
Steve Smale was born in Flint, Michigan on July 15, 1930. He earned his Bachelor degree in 1952, Masters in 1953, and PhD in 1957, all in mathematics, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Smale was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966. Smale spent 1958-60 at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and at the Instituto de Mathematica Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro. In 1960 Smale was appointed associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1961 he accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York but returned to Berkeley in 1964. Since his retirement from Berkeley in 1995, Dr. Smale has been a professor at the City University of Hong Kong. Other awards Dr. Smale has received over the years include the Veblen Prize for Geometry by the American Mathematical Society (1966), the U.S. National Medal of Science (1996), the Chauvenet Prize of the Mathematical Association of America (1988), the Von Neuman Award (1989), the Jürgen Moser Prize (2005) from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2007 Smale was awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics. Smale holds seven honorary doctorates. He has been an honorary member of the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada since 1990, of the Trinity Mathematical Society in Dublin since 1991, of the Moscow Mathematical Society since 1997, and the London Mathematical Society since 1998.
Steve Smale was born in Flint, Michigan on July 15, 1930. He earned his Bachelor degree in 1952, Masters in 1953, and PhD in 1957, all in mathematics, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Smale was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966. Smale spent 1958-60 at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and at the Instituto de Mathematica Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro. In 1960 Smale was appointed associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1961 he accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York but returned to Berkeley in 1964. Since his retirement from Berkeley in 1995, Dr. Smale has been a professor at the City University of Hong Kong. Other awards Dr. Smale has received over the years include the Veblen Prize for Geometry by the American Mathematical Society (1966), the U.S. National Medal of Science (1996), the Chauvenet Prize of the Mathematical Association of America (1988), the Von Neuman Award (1989), the Jürgen Moser Prize (2005) from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2007 Smale was awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics. Smale holds seven honorary doctorates. He has been an honorary member of the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada since 1990, of the Trinity Mathematical Society in Dublin since 1991, of the Moscow Mathematical Society since 1997, and the London Mathematical Society since 1998.
Morse-Smale system
Smale Horseshoe map
Smale-Williams solenoid
EVENT INFORMATION
EVENT INFORMATION
DATE: July 21 - 22, 2025
LOCATION: Calvin Lab Auditorium, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Berkeley, CA
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Lenore Blum, Indika Rajapakse, Mike Shub, Michael Xuan
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Lenore Blum, Indika Rajapakse, Mike Shub, Michael Xuan
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