2-11 May: School on Algorithmic Aspects of the Theory of Semigroups and its Applications

4-8 June: School on Automata and Languages

11-13 June: Workshop on Model Theory, Profinite Topology and Semigroups

2-6 July: School on Semigroups and Applications

9-11 July: Workshop on Presentations and Geometry


CIM Events for 2002
The CIM Scientific Committee, in a meeting held in Coimbra on March 17, approved the CIM scientific program for 2002.


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In this issue we present the answers of two researchers, E. C. Zeeman and Thomas J. Laffey, to the question “If you had to mention one or two great moments in XXth century mathematics which one(s) would you pick?”.


What color is my hat?
This is the crux of “the hat problem,” as presented to readers of the Science section of the New York Times on April 10, 2001. The article, dispatched from Berkeley by Sara Robinson, describes the puzzle as follows:

 


I acquired this piece of information from Nigel Hitchin back in 1986. Let me see if I get it right. You were colleagues in Oxford and during your first year you were taught by Michael Atiyah. What course was it and how was he as a teacher for students just starting university?


Prof. João Pereira Dias, summarizing the beginning of João Farinha’s academic life, wrote: “...in 1934 he gradu- ated in Mathematics in Coimbra with distinction”. After mentioning his “ceaseless teaching work”, he added: “Recruited as an Assistant in 1950, the School of Sciences showed its trust the very same year by giving him full charge of several courses; and four years later his position at the School was definitively established with the Very Good mention given to his brilliant doctoral examination”.