Exploring Mathematics in Canada: Questions for Canadians

[whybother]

Question for Canadians really:

I'm visiting some friends in Canada this summer and I was wondering if, while I'm here, there were any good mathematics institutions to visit. I'm visiting friends in Ontario, but I have a lot of time off and was looking to travel and curious to met some mathematical colleges in Canada. Its a weird question, I know, but I'm a math grad student at a fairly small department here in the states and I like meeting people all over the world. My supervisor doesn't have any ties to Canadians and outside of UofT I don't know of anywhere that has any sort of reputation. My work is in algebraic topology with ties to mathematical physics and I just haven't heard of any Canadians working in similar fields. Anyone know any?

 

[quasar987]

Hi,

Might I ask what it is you're working on precisely and what the ties are to mathematical physics? I'm intrigued.

In Canada I know of the perimeter intitute of theoretical physics (where Lee Smolin is). In the state of Quebec, McGill university has some kind of reputation I think, and there is also Concordia university, though their math department is considerably smaller there I think. These are the english universities and both are in Montreal. The biggest and most renown french university is also in Montreal; it is the Université de Montréal. This is where I go. We have two people working in Symplectic Topology (Octav Cornea and François Lalonde) and a few more working in mathematical physics but no other topologists.

 

[whybother]

Hi,

Might I ask what it is you're working on precisely and what the ties are to mathematical physics? I'm intrigued.

I work specifically in differential forms and holonomy structures, which can be applied to different representations of the geometry of gravitational fields, so symplectic manifolds certainly come up.

I've heard of the Perimeter Institute, but I don't know of anyone there. Forgive me if this is really ignorant, but they speak English at the Université de Montréal? I don't know any French, but I'd like to visit Quebec while I'm in Canada.

 

[quasar987]

Yes, french Canadian people who do not know how to communicate in english on some level are very uncommon. And I would say they are nonexistent in the mathematical community since most of the literature is in english!

 

[whybother]

Yes, french Canadian people who do not know how to communicate in english on some level are very uncommon. And I would say they are nonexistent in the mathematical community since most of the literature is in english!

That makes sense, as all math in Europe is basically English or Russian. I'll look into mathematicians at Montreal then.

And look up the Perimeter Institute again I guess.

 

[quasar987]

check out http://www.cirget.uqam.ca/pages/membres/membres_fr.shtml

The site is in french but basically it lists most of the professors and postdoc in Montreal working in geometry and topology. The middle column is the university to which they are affiliated and the third column lists their respective research interest. I'm sure you can understand them as the words are very similar to the english ones, modulo an odd "é" every now and then. The only substantial difference is the word "variété" which means "manifold" and also "de basse dimension" which means "low dimensional".

 

[whybother]

That's really helpful, thanks a lot.