The Mathematical Institute Newsletter is maintained by Jan-Hendrik Evertse. The newsletter will be issued the first week of each month, except for July and August. The electronic version of the newsletter can be found on
http://www.math.leidenuniv.nl/~evertse/newsletter.shtml
(go to the homepage of the Mathematical Institute and click on "Newsletter").

Copy for the newsletter of December, such as announcements, personal notes, visits to conferences, guests, lectures of general interest, should be sent by e-mail to evertse@math.leidenuniv.nl before November 27. Copy should be submitted in English plaintext, so that it can be inserted into the newsletter without time consuming typing or translating work.

Agenda and announcements

• Honorary doctorate for Professor Murre
   
  At October 2, 2002, Prof.dr. J.P. Murre received an honorary doctorate from the university of Turin. At this occasion also three other mathematicians were awarded an honorary doctorate: H.C. Clemens (Ohio State University), V.A. Iskovskikh (Steklov Mathematical Institute, Moscow) and S. Mori (RIMS Kyoto University; winner of the Fields Medal in 1990). The presentation of the honorary doctorates was part of a commemoration of the well-known Italian algebraic geometer Gino Fano (1871-1952), who worked at the university of Turin.
  From September 29-October 5, there was a "Fano conference", with about 50 participants, at which the advances resulting from Fano's work were discussed.

• Lectures about "Escher and the Droste effect"
   
  

  Hendrik Lenstra		November 6		Studium Generale, Leiden
  Bart de Smit		November 12		General Colloquium Mathematics and Computer Science, Groningen
  Bart de Smit		November 21		Ann Arbor, Michigan
  Chris Zaal		November 23		Ars et Mathesis dag, Baarn
  Joost Batenburg		November 29		Open dag Mathematisch Instituut, Leiden
  Hendrik Lenstra		December 4		General Colloquium/Seminar on Recreational Mathematics, Leiden (see below)

• Tenth anniversary of the Stieltjes Institute
   
  On November 15, there will be a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Stieltjes Institute.
   
  Time: November 15, 1:30-6:00 pm
  Place: Koninklijk Instituut Van Ingenieurs (KIVI), Prinsessegracht 23, Den Haag (close to railway station Den Haag Centraal)
  Program (in Dutch): see http://www.stieltjes.org/10jaar.html.

• General Colloquium
   
  November 14, 4:00-5:00 pm, room 174
  Prof. T. Hill (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA): The Significant-digit Phenomenon, or Benford's Law.
   
  December 4, 4:00-5:00 pm, Gorlaeus complex, lecture hall C1:
  Prof. H.W. Lenstra (Universiteit Leiden, University of Berkeley): Escher and the Droste effect
  (In cooperation with the Seminar on Recreational Mathematics organized by Chris Zaal)
   
  December 12, 4:00-5:00 pm, room 174:
  Dr. A.J. Lenstra (Universiteit van Amsterdam, EURANDOM): TBA
  

• Kloosterman lecture by Professor Donoho
   
  November 21, 4:00-5:00 pm, room 174
  Prof. D.L. Donoho (Stanford University, California, USA): Beyond wavelets: Emerging Applications of Geometric Multiscale Analysis
   
  In 2002, the Kloosterman chair is occupied by Prof.dr. D.L. Donoho from the Stanford University. Prof. Donoho works in the field of Mathematical statistics and its applications to biomedical sciences. On Thursday November 21, Prof. Donoho will give his Kloosterman lecture, which is meant for a general mathematical audience. After the lecture there will be a reception. Everybody is cordially invited to the lecture and the reception. The lecture will be in room 174, and the reception in room 176.

• Lecture by Professor Palencina
   
  November 22
  Prof. C. Palencina (Universidad de Valladolid): A differentiable, non-holomorphic calculus for symmetric operators under a Gaussian estimate

Personal notes

• New employees

  PhD. Students:

  - Drs. K.J. Batenburg per September 1, 2002, with Prof.dr R. Tijdeman and Dr.ir. H.J.J. te Riele (CWI).

  Dear staff-members,
   
  Since september I am a PhD. Student with Prof. Tijdeman at both the Universiteit Leiden and the CWI (Center of Mathematics and Computer Science) in Amsterdam. Three days a week I work in Amsterdam, the other two days I am in Leiden. My supervisor in Amsterdam is Herman te Riele. My research is on the subject of Discrete Tomography. I studied Mathematics here in Leiden which I finished last summer. Currently I am still studying Computer Science, also in Leiden, which I hope to finish next year. I am looking forward to working in Leiden.
   
  Kind regards, Joost

  - Drs. B.H.J. Jansen per September 1, 2002, with Prof.dr. H.W. Lenstra and Dr. B. de Smit

  Hi everybody,
   
  I am a PhD. student of Hendrik Lenstra and Bart de Smit since 01-09-2002. In 1997 I started studying mathematics in Utrecht. Five years later I wrote my master's thesis under supervision of Bart de Smit. My main interest is number theory, but I am also curious in other parts of mathematics.
   
  Greatings Bas.

  - Drs. T. van den Bogaart per September 1, 2002, with Prof.dr. S.J. Edixhoven.

  Last August I graduated at Utrecht University under supervision of dr. Ben Moonen (UvA). Immediately after that, I started working here as an AIO of Bas Edixhoven. My main interests are in abelian varieties and geometry in prime characteristic.
   
  Veel groeten,
  Theo van den Bogaart

• Guests:

  Guest of Prof.dr. M.N. Spijker:

  - Prof. Cesar Palencia (Universidad de Valladolid). He will give a special lecture on Friday  November 22, 2002: "A differentiable, non-holomophic calculus for symmetric operators under a gaussian estimate".

Research

• Working visits/visits to conferences:
  - J.-H. Evertse will visit the university of Paris VI from November 28-29 to give a lecture and to participate in a thesis defense jury.
  - L. Ferracina and M.N. Spijker will attend the Workshop "Innovative Time Integrators for PDEs" from November 25-27, at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), Amsterdam.
  

• Technical reports:
  

  MI 2002-25		N. Popov and F.M. Spieksma: Non-existence of a stochastic fluid limit for a cycling random walk
  MI 2002-26		A. Hordijk, N. Popov and F.M. Spieksma: Discrete scattering and simple non-simple face-homogeneous random walks