Past Lectures

2023: Maryna Viazovska

This year's Einstein Lectures were dedicated to the mathematical sphere-packing problem. How to pack spheres – such as oranges stacked in a pyramid – as close together as possible?

Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska held three lectures on this topic. Viazovska holds the Chair of Number Theoryat EPF Lausanne. In 2022, she received a Fields Medal, often described as the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics", for her work on the sphere-packing problem in 8 and 24 dimensions.

 

Die Mathematikerin Maryna Viazovska hält die Einstein Lectures 2023. © EPFL / Fred Merz
Philosopher Philip Pettit delivered the Einstein Lectures 2021 at the University of Bern. © University of Bern / Photo: Vera Knöpfel

Video Lectures 2023

Cannonballs and kisses in higher dimensions

At the first of her three Einstein Lectures at the University of Bern, mathematician Maryna Viazovska provided an insight into the more than 400-year history of ideas behind a conjecture.