General recommendations

The purpose of our colloquium is twofold: firstly, it is to provide an inspiring overview of a specific field of mathematics, secondly, it is to bring together students and staff from the entire department and to serve as the proverbial waterhole where contacts are made and maintained. The first purpose is for you to fulfil while the second is an intended side effect of a good colloquium.

The lecture should be geared towards a general mathematical audience. We ask you therefore to keep to general ideas and/or concrete examples and avoid technical definitions. It is virtually impossible to make a colloquium talk too easy. It will be appreciated if you can place the topic of the lecture in a historical context. We encourage you to focus more on the field at large and less on your own contributions. The audience typically includes undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty with varied backgrounds (e.g. pure mathematics, applied mathematics, statistics). If possible, we ask you to include in your talk a brief outlook into future developments and current open questions. We recommend the following texts that can provide new perspectives also to the seasoned lecturer.

• P.R. Halmos, How to talk mathematics. Available at the following URL: faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/HalmosHowToTalk.pdf
• John McCarthy, How to give a good colloquium. Available at the following URL: www.ams.org/profession/leaders/workshops/gcoll.pdf

Practical recommendations

The colloquiums are Wednesdays at 14:15. Please plan at most 50 minutes for your presentation. It will be followed by roughly 10 minutes of questions and discussion.

The abstract should reflect the content of the talk. Preferably, it should be clear from the abstract that the talk is aimed at a broad audience. Please refrain from assuming too many prerequisites from the audience. Please avoid technical terms and try to keep it at a level understandable to a general audience of mathematicians. If there is an interesting review article on the topic feel free to refer to it in your abstract.

The colloquium will be held in either the Hörmander, Gårding or Riesz lecture hall. Both rooms have a blackboard, a projector and an overhead projector. If required it is possible to use the projector and blackboard in parallel. The projectors have HDMI-cables. If you need an adapter or if you need to borrow a computer for the talk, please let us know.