Seminars

Rani Borbara presents brain-wide recordings from more than 150 freely moving C. elegans to examine how anatomical connectivity becomes functional organization during behavior. Cross-animal models map cell-class conditional dependencies and test how synapses, gap junctions, neuromodulation and shared brain states shape circuit dynamics.

Cary Institute lecture with environmental historian Stephen Pyne (professor emeritus, Arizona State University) in conversation with Cary forest ecologist Winslow Hansen, on humanity's evolving relationship with fire, why destructive megafires have increased, the role of climate and land-use decisions, and pathways toward restoring ecological fire balance.

Stanford Neurosciences Seminar Series talk by Emery Brown (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Neuroscience Statistics Research Lab) on deciphering the dynamics of the unconscious brain under general anesthesia, hosted by the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

One of the main achievements of my last four years at Perimeter has been the development and formulation of intrinsic null geometry. This framework has served as a common denominator for the study of the (algebraic) quantization of gravity on null hypersurfaces; connections to quantum-gravity phenomenology for causal diamonds and the derivation of the Verlinde-Zurek fluctuation identity; a complete characterization of the null gravitational phase space; links to asymptotic null infinity; and the related classification of eBMS anomalies. After introducing the basic toolkit of null geometry, I will digress on Carrollian connections and on how the intrinsic geometry is related to an ambient manifold. I will then introduce the null Brown-York stress tensor, which allows the intrinsic gravitational constraints to be recast as conservation laws. Finally, I will briefly retrace the path through the aforementioned applications, with particular emphasis on new and ongoing results.

This seminar discusses a proof-of-concept gravitational-waveform model described in arXiv:2511.10522. It augments post-Newtonian equations using physics-informed neural-network methods and universal differential equations. The talk also covers ongoing development of a precessing surrogate model designed to evaluate in less than one millisecond while covering a broader portion of the LVK frequency band.

Daphna Shohamy and Ashok Litwin-Kumar bridge experimental and computational neuroscience to explain how the brain assigns significance to memories, how dopamine shapes memory-guided decisions, and how bodily signals influence learning. Isabel Low moderates a public discussion and question session.

Two-lecture series by Mohammed Abouzaid (Stanford): 'Framed bordism and nearby Lagrangians' (September 16) and 'Complex bordism and Hamiltonian fibrations' (September 17), on bordism-theoretic approaches to Lagrangian embeddings in symplectic manifolds and Arnold's nearby Lagrangian conjecture.

Shiv Grewal discusses how chromatin and epigenetic mechanisms establish, maintain, and transmit genome states beyond the DNA sequence itself. This NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series event is offered in person and through NIH VideoCast.

Kirk Public Lecture at the Isaac Newton Institute by Yoshiko Ogata (Kyoto University) on how macroscopic properties of matter emerge from quantum particle interactions and the classification of topological order from an operator-algebraic perspective in mathematical physics.

Robert E. Gompf (University of Texas, Austin) lectures on 'On classifying smoothings of R^4 - from the beginning to the present', tracing how 4-manifold topology emerged from the breakthroughs of Freedman and Donaldson and how Euclidean 4-space admits exotic smoothings that resist classification by countable numerical invariants.

Tal Linzen, an associate professor of linguistics and data science at New York University and a research scientist at Google, will speak in MIT's Siegel Family Quest for Intelligence seminar series. His work combines behavioral experiments and computational methods to study language learning and comprehension, alongside large-language-model post-training, evaluation, and interpretability.

Tree-level open string amplitudes are integrals over the moduli space of n points on the projective line, and their field theory limit is the Cachazo-He-Yuan formula for tr(\Phi^3) amplitudes. Joint work with Freddy Cachazo, Alfredo Guevara and Sebastián Mizera (CEGM) replaces the line by P^(k-1), giving amplitude-like objects whose Feynman diagrams are higher-dimensional polyhedral complexes rather than trees. After reviewing this framework, I will discuss recent progress on new factorization patterns which appear and linear zero-preserving deformations, which produce nonlinear sigma model amplitudes at k=2 by a result of Arkani-Hamed, Cao, Dong, Figueiredo and He, and new factorization behavior at k greater than or equal to 3.

JWST observations reveal sources earlier and brighter than anticipated. This talk examines their implications for cosmological and galaxy-formation models. It considers the unexpectedly numerous galaxies during the first few hundred million years, at redshifts above nine, and how cosmological clustering measurements can distinguish competing explanations. It then presents an initial empirical measurement of the dependence of star-formation variability, or burstiness, on galaxy mass, which may help explain the excess. Finally, it discusses tensions between JWST measurements of reionization and evidence from the cosmic microwave background and Lyman-alpha forest, including implications for DESI’s recent dark-energy results.

Debashree Ghosh discusses quantum-chemistry approaches for strongly correlated polyaromatic hydrocarbons, including acenes and carotenoids. The talk examines why large valence active spaces are needed to describe optical properties and singlet–triplet gaps, and how density-matrix renormalization-group methods address these systems. Changes in molecular topology and odd-membered rings are connected to spin frustration and optical behaviour. The seminar also covers neural-network configuration interaction, connections between artificial neural networks and matrix-product-state wavefunctions, and restricted-Boltzmann-machine approaches to quantum wavefunctions. Applications include singlet fission and multiexcitonic phenomena. The hybrid event takes place in ICTP’s Euler Lecture Hall and online; the official event page provides the registration link.

Luca Mrini presents work in progress on quantising singular configuration spaces using the non-smooth calculus of metric-measure spaces. The framework generalises smooth quantum mechanics through Hilbert spaces, position and momentum operators, Hamiltonians, unitary dynamics, and observable algebras. A method for bounding mass gaps after symplectic reduction uses the curvature of the unreduced configuration space. Examples include the harmonic oscillator constrained to zero angular momentum, lattice Yang–Mills theory, and fractional-dimensional Laakso spaces. The talk closes with prospective applications to the Yang–Mills mass-gap problem and quantum gravity.

Kenneth Wharton of San Jose State University discusses local weak values in quantum circuits and whether they support a covariant description of individual qubits. The talk considers entanglement, constraints across an entire circuit and the relationship between quantum systems and classical spacetime. The confirmed Quantum Foundations seminar takes place on 10 September 2026, from 11:00 to 12:30 Toronto time in Perimeter Institute's Bob Room.

Planets form from dust embedded in gaseous protoplanetary disks. Hydrodynamic instabilities can hinder growth by stirring turbulence, yet also help by creating structures that collect solids and promote planetesimal formation. Min-Kai Lin will discuss analytical and numerical studies of the vertical shear instability and convective overstability, their interactions with dust, and generalisations of the streaming instability to disks with accretion or magnetic fields. The seminar examines how these processes alter the conditions for concentrating solids and the challenges that remain in connecting disk dynamics to planet formation.

This English-language webinar examines advances in organoid research, production, and drug discovery. Hideya Sakaguchi covers the developmental-biology origins of neural organoid research and its potential for drug discovery, followed by a keynote from Thomas Mitchell of The Organoid Company and a live question session.

Saavik Ford gives a public lecture in the Simons Foundation's 2026 Black Holes series, which examines black holes from stellar remnants to supermassive galactic objects through observational breakthroughs and theoretical advances.

Yuko Munakata presents evidence challenging capacity-only accounts of self-control and explains how experience, effort, and expected payoff shape executive-function engagement and later outcomes.