SUMS: Bar-Natan (Uni of Toronto) -- Nobody solves the quintic

 What: Week 3 Talk When: Thursday 17 August, 1 pm - 2 pm Where: New Law 024 

Abstract: Everybody knows that nobody can solve the quintic.  Indeed it’s a well known
hard theorem, the high point of a full-semester course on Galois theory, often taken in
one’s 3rd or 4th year of university mathematics.  Abel-Ruffini Theorem.  In this talk,
we will explore an accessible proof of this famous theorem using basic and easily
understandable topology.  The level of content should be accessible for most
undergraduates in mathematics.  

About the speaker: Professor Dror Bar-Natan earned his B.Sc at Tel Aviv University in
1984 and later Ph.D.  from Princeton University in 1991.  Since then, he has taken
positions at Harvard University, Hebrew University and UC Berkeley.  He is currently a
Professor at the University of Toronto.