Mathematical Sciences Research Institute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), founded in 1982, is a mathematical research institution whose funding sources include the National Science Foundation. The institution is located on the University of California, Berkeley campus, close to Grizzly Peak, on the hills overlooking Berkeley.

MSRI was founded in 1982 by Shiing-Shen Chern, Calvin Moore, and Isadore M. Singer. MSRI holds programs, workshops, and hosts 20-30 postdoctoral researchers each year. Unlike many mathematical institutes, it has no permanent faculty apart from the administration. Its main activity is holding four semester-long research programs each year (two at a time), in which a few senior researchers and many postdoctoral researchers stay for extended periods, with many visitors coming for brief periods or for two or three more focused weeklong workshops connected each program (including a partly expository introductory workshops at the commencement of each program). MSRI also holds a few one-week workshops unconnected to the main programs, especially during the summer. The paired programs are often related, and sometimes a program will span both semesters. MSRI has also held a "double program" on algebraic geometry in which there is a single program of twice the size.

James Simons is one of the most generous supporters of MSRI.

[edit] List of Directors

1982-1984 Shiing-Shen Chern
1984-1992 Irving Kaplansky
1992-1997 William Thurston
1997-2007 David Eisenbud
August 1, 2007- Robert Bryant

[edit] Outreach

MSRI has sponsored many events that reach out to the non-mathematical public. Its Simons Auditorium hosts regular performances of classical music. Mathematician Robert Osserman has held a series of public "conversations" with prominent artists who have been influenced by mathematics in their work, such as composer Philip Glass, actor and writer Steve Martin, and playwright Tom Stoppard. MSRI also collaborates with playwrights for an annual program of new short mathematics-inspired plays at Monday Night Playground at the [Berkeley Repertory Theater], and co-sponsored a series of mathematics-inspired films with UC Berkeley's [Pacific Film Archive] for MSRI's 20th anniversary. It also created a series of mathematical puzzles that were posted among the advertising placards on San Francisco Muni buses.