MOSS: the Mathematics Online Seminar Series by EMYA continues

The Mathematics Online Seminar Series (MOSS) presents lectures by distinguished early-career mathematicians from around the world. It is primarily intended for researchers working toward, or having recently completed, a PhD in mathematics, regardless of speciality. The talks are also designed to be broadly accessible, and may therefore appeal to more senior mathematicians interested in topics beyond their own area.

«MOSS offers a great opportunity to meet excellent mathematical researchers and engage with them in a relaxed and inspiring way,» says Cristina Molero-Río. «These kinds of interactions are not always easy to come by, and at the same time the seminars leave behind high-quality content on our YouTube channel, which is a real benefit for the community.» She adds that the fantastic first-season speakers, together with encouraging feedback from participants, were a major reason to return with a second season.

Belén Pulido highlights the broad international interest the organisers saw from the first season: «When we looked at the locations of people on the mailing list, we saw people joining from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It showed us that there is a consistent interest in these topics globally.» She also emphasises continuity: the second season keeps the established format, with the aim of ensuring that the seminars remain «a friendly and open space for everyone.»

When selecting speakers, the organisers aim for both excellence and breadth. «We aim to offer a sort of ‘tasting menu’ of mathematics,» says Pulido, bringing together different fields and speakers who can present their work clearly to non-experts. Molero-Río notes that, unlike the first season, where all speakers were EMS Prize winners from 2024, this year’s speakers are not linked by a single shared award; instead, each has earned notable prizes or competitive funding in their field, highlighting the strength of their research. The organisers also welcome suggestions for future speakers and topics.

One moment from last season neatly captured the spirit of MOSS: «I remember a Q&A session where a master’s student was asking the speaker for references to dive deeper into the topic, while at the same time a senior participant was asking more advanced questions,» recalls Molero-Río. «That really captured what MOSS is about: people at different stages, all curious and eager to learn together.»

The seminars are held online via Zoom, typically on the first Thursday of each month at 4 p.m. (CEST), lasting approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A. Shortly after each seminar, the video recording will be available on the EMS YouTube channel.

Schedule for Season 2

• 5 February - Danylo Radchenko (U. Lille, CNRS, France): Sphere packings and modular forms

• 5 March - Yasmine Beck (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands): On Decision Uncertainty in Bilevel Optimization: Perception and Solution Errors in Follower Responses

• 9 April - Claudia García (University of Granada, Spain): Patterns and equilibria in incompressible fluids

• 7 May - Benjamin Wesolowski (ENS Lyon, CNRS, France): Random walks in number-theoretic cryptology

• 4 June - Maggie Miller (University of Texas, USA): Irreducible projective planes

Abstract: In the study of knotted surfaces in dimension four, a key difficulty is the lack of examples: it is significantly harder to generate knotted surfaces than it is to generate classical knots. A simple way of producing projective planes in S^4 is to connect sum a knotted 2-sphere with a standard (“unknotted”) projective plane. The Kinoshita Conjecture, open (until recently) since the 1970s, conjectured that every locally flat projective plane in S^4 has this form. In this talk, I will show how to construct a projective plane that disproves the Kinoshita Conjecture — and along the way, simple examples of knotted surfaces in S^4 and interesting open problems. This is joint work with Mark Hughes, Seungwon Kim, and Gheehyun Nahm.

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To receive updates and the Zoom details, register for the MOSS mailing list.

You can also watch previous talks on the EMS YouTube channel.

Stay tuned - we are looking forward to e-seeing you!

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