Hosting distinguished mathematicians from around the world

Myhill Lecture Series

Since 1988, the Myhill Lecture Series has featured special presentations and lectures by distinguished mathematicians from around the world. The series is named to honor John R. Myhill, Sr., who served as a UB Mathematics professor from 1966 to 1987. Myhill graduated from Harvard University in 1949. His dissertation is titled, A Semantically Complete Foundation for Logic and Mathematics. The UB Mathematics John R. Myhill Lecture Series is funded, in part, by the Darwin D. Martin endowment.

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Myhill Lecture Series 2025

Mikhail Khovanov (Johns Hopkins University)

Mikhail Khovanov.

Mikhail Khovanov, PhD

April 30, May 1 & 2, 2025, join us for the 35th Edition of the Myhill Lecture Series: Link homology and other applications of defect networks, featuring Mikhail Khovanov (Johns Hopkins University). Khovanov's three talks include: Topological quantum field theories in classical computation and in graph theory; Diagrammatics of categorified quantum groups; and, Link homology from foams. Each talk begins at 4 pm in 250 Mathematics Building, North Campus.

Contact: Daniel Sage, dsage@buffalo.edu

Link homology and other applications of defect networks

April 30, 2025, Wednesday, 4:00 P.M.
 250 Mathematics Building
Lecture 1: Topological quantum field theories in classical computation and in graph theory
Abstract: The relation between TQFTs (topological quantum field theories) and quantum computation is well-known. We will explain a relation between one-dimensional TQFTs with defects and finite state automata and a relation between two-dimensional TQFTs and graph theory, including graph homomorphisms and perfect matchings.

May 1,  2025, Thursday, 4:00 P.M.
250 Mathematics Building
Lecture 2: Diagrammatics of categorified quantum groups
Abstract: How to take the divided power of a functor? We explain the construction, based on nilHecke algebras, and its extension to categorification of quantum groups.

May 2,  2025, Friday, 4:00 P.M.
250 Mathematics Building
Lecture 3: Link homology from foams
Abstract: A perfect model for link homology is a functor from the category of link cobordisms to the category of vector spaces or abelian groups. The talk will review the construction of such a functor based on Robert-Wagner foam evaluation.

Bio: Mikhail Khovanov is a Russian-American professor of mathematics who works on representation theory, knot theory, and algebraic topology. He is known for introducing Khovanov homology for links, which was one of the first examples of categorification. Khovanov earned a PhD in mathematics from Yale University in 1997, where he studied under Igor Frenkel.
Research Interests: Categorification, representation theory, low-dimensional topology

Wikipedia:  In 2000  constructed a certain chain complex for knots and links and showed that the homology induced from it is a knot invariant (see ). The Jones polynomial is described as the  for this homology.

Myhill Lecture Series

Link homology and other applications of defect networks 

Mikhail Khovanov (Johns Hopkins University)
April 30, May 1 and 2, 2025
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
4:00 P.M. each day
250 Mathematics Building
UB North Campus

Zoom image: Myhill L3cture Series 2025 Poster Myhill L3cture Series 2025 Poster.

Myhill Lecturers (Selected)

  • Mikhail Khovanov, 2025
    4/2/25
  • Tomasz Mrowka, 2024
    7/15/24
  • Gigliola Staffilani, 2022
    8/17/23
    The Myhill Lecture Series 2022, "The study of wave interactions: where beautiful mathematical ideas come together" will be delivered by Dr. Gigliola Staffilani, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Mathematics at MIT. Her research concerns harmonic analysis and partial differential equations, including the Korteweg–de Vries equation and Schrödinger equation. Join us for each lecture in the series, October 5, 6 and 7, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., 250 Mathematics Building, North Campus. 
  • Laura DeMarco, 2019
    9/14/22
    The Myhill Lecture Series 2019, "Complex dynamics and arithmetic geometry", will be delivered by Dr. Laura DeMarco, Henry S. Noyes Professor of Mathematics at Northwestern University. She earned her PhD in 2002 from Harvard. DeMarco's research is focused on the dynamics of polynomial or rational mappings on algebraic varieties, especially in dimension 1, with the primary goal of understanding notions of stability and bifurcation. Her recent work explores connections between dynamical properties of maps and the arithmetic geometry of the underlying varieties.
  • Mark Newman, 2018
    9/14/22
    Myhill Lecture Series 2018 by Dr. Mark Newman, Anatol Rapoport Distinguished University Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan.
  • Guoliang Yu, 2017
    9/14/22
    Join us for the 2017 Myhill Lecture Series by Guoliang Yu. His lecture series is entitled "Groups, Manifolds, and Higher Invariants of Elliptic Operators".
  • Gopal Prasad, 2016
    9/14/22
    Gopal Prasad, the Raul Bott Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan, delivered the prestigious Myhill Lectures on October 18-20, 2016. The lecture series, titled “Number Theory in Geometry,” drew an overflow crowd to Math 250 for the first talk, an introduction to the history of number theory in geometry.
  • Ciprian Manolescu, 2015
    9/14/22
    Ciprian Manolescu, Professor of Mathematics at UCLA, presented the Myhill Lecture Series 2014-15. This 3-part lecture series was held in April 2015, and included a reception in honor of Professor Manolescu after the first lecture. Manolescu earned his BA from Harvard in 2001. In 2002 he won the Morgan Prize for undergraduate research. He continued at Harvard, earning his PhD in 2004 under the supervision of Peter Kronheimer.
  • Percy A. Deift, 2014
    9/14/22
    Professor Percy A. Deift from Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU, presented the Myhill Lecture Series 2013-14. This 3-part lecture series was held in the Fall, and included a reception in honor of Professor Deift after the first lecture.
  • Peter Sarnak, 2013
    9/14/22
    Professor Peter Sarnak from Princeton University presented the Myhill Lecture Series 2013. This 3-part lecture series was held in the Spring, and included a reception in honor of Professor Sarnak after the first lecture.

Short bio: John R. Myhill, Sr.

John Myhill.

John R. Myhill, Sr. photograph courtesy of Paul Halmos

(11 August 1923 – 15 February 1987) was a British mathematician. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University under Willard Van Orman Quine in 1949. He was professor at SUNY Buffalo from 1966 until his death in 1987. He also taught at several other universities. His son, also named John Myhill, is a professor of linguistics in the English department of the University of Haifa in Israel.

Since 1988, the Myhill Lecture Series hosted by UB Mathematics has featured over two dozen distinguished mathematicians from around the world.

Myhill's Mathematics

Myhill's Music

 
Lejaren Hiller, Charles Ames, John Myhill, Jan Williams

Tsukuba exposition 1985: computer generated music  
Automated Composition: An Installation at the 1985 International Exposition in Tsukuba, Japan

J.M.'s Early Efforts — wrote digitally on reel-to-reel tapes, which were then replayed analog.