Conference Tales: Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2015

Mathematics and Computer Science : Old Generation Meets the Next Generation of Scientists

After my time as a postdoc at Berkeley and before I left to research in China, I was sent an email from the current chair of my former department (from my graduate school days) advertising a conference on the intersection of mathematics and computer science.

The intent of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum is to honor laureates (Abel Award, Turing Award, and Fields Medalist winners) while at the same time introduce them to the, supposed, next best up-and-coming young mathematicians and computer scientists. I have my doubts as I managed to sneak by their rigorous acceptance committee.

Abel, Turing, and Fields -- Oh My!

For those of you who are not aware, mathematics and computer science do not have a Nobel Prize. Apparently, these disciplines don't pack enough dynamite!

They do, however, have equivalent awards (in status only, not in prize money) that are comparable to the Nobel Prizes.

The laureates had their own envoy of limousines, special head tables, and, in general, were shown the highest honour. Normal conferences have a dinner maybe 1 night of the week, with maybe some other mini-networking for grad students or postdocs with a poster session (or at least in mathematics and computer science), but this conference had dinners every night of the week. I enjoyed the free meals immensely as I had just finished my last position in Beijing and had yet to start the next one in Toronto and was a pauper of a postdoc.

Who'd Ya Meet?

Well, I ran into a few mathematician friends that I knew from previous postdoc experiences and from other conferences. Bernd Sturmfels (who said he had been on the committee evaluating young researchers' applications), Kaie Kubjas (whom I knew from the Simons' Institute), and Tim Marrinan (a mathematics graduate student whose time at Colorado State overlapped with mine).

Although, I wouldn't say seeing them was all that surprising. Meeting the actual laureates was way more interesting!

A few people topped the list that I recall meeting (or seeing again). Fred Brooks, Stephen Cook, Sir Michael Atiyah, Manuel Blum, and Andrew C. Yao.

I will only remark on one of the laureate's talks, namely Fred Brooks'. Brooks' talk was fascinating, although, it went a little overboard on the time. He gave an overview of the role of IBM played in the early computational days. Now, mind you, this conference is before I joined (or even applied to) IBM as a postdoc in High Performance Computing.

Where's Waldo?

Here's an official album on Flickr of the photos taken at the Forum. I'm in at least 3 of them. If you can find me, then I will give you a reward.

My Impressions

Well, I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I thought that the majority of the conference seemed a little much with a lot of self-congratulations occurring, and the organizers constantly reminding the attendees how amazing they were and that they were the new leaders of their respective disciplines with future laureates assuredly in the audience.

Beyond that, some of the talks were re-hashes of the work that the laureates had done initially to obtain their award. The talks that discussed current research were, on average, the best. Fortunately, the Heidelberg Laureate Foundation recorded all the talks! You can watch them by going here!

Probably, the best part was the business cards the Heidelberg Laureate Foundation provided for networking. I need to bust out those cards and see if I need to contact anyone at some point. As mentioned before, networking (or really, not working) is how this world operates (and not just in academia).

Sight-seeing

No conference can happen without some sight-seeing. Here are some photos (with some quirky commentary, that's probably best ignored).

I swear I don't have long hair anymore. Although, my fiancee (@edgeland) wants me to grow it back out. The beard is less unruly. I don't think I cared so much about my appearance while in China, hence the raggedness. Well, and the inner hippy (yippee!).

Here's a picture of me not too long ago that you can use as a comparison.

We got to tour a famous castle. I'm not exactly sure what one it is. But I remember something about some big-shot Holy Roman Emperor. Crowned (and probably picked) by the pope. I love history, but I can't remember it all!

The countryside outside of Heidelberg is gorgeous!

A menacing statue guarding the building! He might be Ares or someone famous like that. He's not as red as the building, so maybe not!

The inside of a cathedral. An attempt at me being an artist in trying to capture the proper perspective of the architecture. See how the columns on one side line up nearly in the same point in the projection, whereas the columns on the other side approach the vanishing point.

Epic fail ? You be the judge. I think that iPhones cannot do the place true justice.

Yes! I was really there.

Perspective!

Descending into a crypt.

A panoramic. I don't think I knew what I was doing here with that iPhone. I still don't. Stupid smart phones! All these buttons and apps. It is kindof a sleek design. Phones are really not my thing. The technology confuses me to this day.

I think these are the 4 Gospel writers ... but I could be wrong. I often am. I wouldn't believe a word I say (even if it's all true).

I believe this to be the emperor. You can tell how important he is by the length of his beard. The most civilized and advanced societies often use this as a metric in their art to emphasize importance.

Oh good! We made it out of the Church alive. Not many can say they're able to escape its clutches or that you are ever really beyond its reach.

Some interesting art that I thought I would take a photo of, and in turn, make more art! The meta astounds me still.

I believe that the Monkey (the golden hat thingy) is supposed to be guarding the entrance to Heidelberg on this bridge. I don't remember if it's called the Golden Monkey Bridge, but it should have been.

Some different views of the castle!

If you look really closely, you can see me and the castle projected onto the complex plane!

The entrance to Heidelberg.

The exit from Heidelberg.

I'm all about perspective.

So What?

One word was on everyone's mind, and the talk of the entire conference: BLOCKCHAIN. Well, that and the Internet of Things. Possibly how they could be merged together (which I do not believe to be possible under any current consensus model, except potentially The Tangle).

Anyway, the point of this post is that many academics (young and old alike), all around the globe, are very much aware of the potentials of blockchain technology.