6 Sep 2006; Mat-Nat Faculty (UiTø), room U6=C321. Wednesday 10:15-12:00

Boris Kruglikov

"Around Poincaré conjecture"

I would like to discuss in very general terms the Poincaré conjecture, which was one in the list of seven millennium problems, each being evaluated to $1000000 by the Clay Mathematical Institute.

The famous statement was proven recently by Grigory Perelman and this was accepted by other experts on ICM2006 in Madrid. Since I have just returned from the Congress, my impressions are fresh and I can recall many discussion and lectures around this proof.

I would try to keep the mathematical side of the arguments, but we can have a general discussion as well (in fact, Perelman's unusual behavior raised and refreshed many questions about mathematical moral standards in collaboration, competition and prices).

I will also give a sketch of the very complicated proof, showing the most important steps achieved in Perelman's breakthrough. However the talk will not be technical and should be mostly understood by the students.