Dear all:

I would like to contribute another reminder to everyone of the special talks this week by visiting Distinguished Professor Joe Silverman from Brown University. Anyone who is interested may attend any of them.

Dr. Silverman has literally written the book on each talk.

Wednesday 11/3 at 5:30 PM there is a Math talk in MSCS 101. "Taxicabs and Sums of Two Cubes: An excursion in Number Theory":

This is an introductory talk by Professor Silverman (who authored a very popular undergraduate textbook "A Friendly Introduction to Number Theory") on a interesting story in elementary number theory involving Ramanujan and Dr. Silverman's own contributions much later.

Thursday, 11/4 at 1:45 PM in MSCS 405/428. Number Theory Seminar: "Points of small height on elliptic curves and abelian surfaces"

This will be a research-level seminar in Dr. Silverman's specialization in number theory. Dr. Silverman is the author of one of the most widely used textbooks "The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves" on the number theory of elliptic curves, a subject which was the background for Andrew Wiles' famous proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. To be honest, you might need to have read a bunch of that before undertaking such a seminar. Dr. Silverman is a world-class speaker, but a seminar is at a pretty high level.

Finally, the feature talk this week is a general audience colloquium on Friday, November 5, 3:30 PM, in SSH 035, followed by the reception in SSH 130 (the parlor area) (the building formerly called Murray Hall).

"How Quantum Computers Will Kill Bitcoin and Break the Internet, and What We Can Do About It"

Dr. Silverman is a co-author (with Hoffstein and Pipher) of the textbook "An Intro to Mathematical Cryptography" as well as founder of the crypto company NTRU Cryptosystems (now part of Security Innovation) which created the NTRU cyptosystem which is being studied as a potentially secure system in the event of the creation of the first real quantum computer (which will render many current cryptosystems insecure).

If you are interested in crypto (or the future of the world), you may find this talk very interesting from a leader in the field.

There are some times this week, where Dr. Silverman will be available in the colloquium visitor's office MS 407: 10AM Wednesday and Thursday.

In addition, there is a special talk at 11AM on Thursday morning in the "virtual number theory seminar" https://www.ntwebseminar.org/ by one of Dr. Silverman's former students Dr. Kate Stange, professor of Math at the University of Colorado. That can be watched over the internet provided you register for the seminar at the above link. Drs. Fili and Doyle are arranging a viewing in MS509, but seating is limited, and you should contact Dr. Fili or Doyle to see if space remains available.

Thanks to Drs. Fili and Pritsker for organizing this special week of talks in number theory.

Best wishes, David Wright