Confirmed Plenary Speakers



Hansjörg Albrecher

Mathematics for Insurance, the modeling of NatCat risks and climate change

Abstract: Soon available.
Short-Bio: Hansjörg Albrecher is Professor of Actuarial Science at the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne and a Faculty Member of the Swiss Finance Institute. After studying in Graz, Limerick and Baltimore, he held faculty and visiting positions in Graz, Leuven, Aarhus and the Radon Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Linz before moving to Lausanne in 2009, and guest professorships at various institutions since then, including the University of Hong Kong and ETH Zurich. He has published extensively in the field of insurance modelling and finance, and has been serving on the editorial board of numerous journals, including Insurance: Mathematics and Economics (Editor 2010-2017) and the European Actuarial Journal (Editor-in-Chief since 2019).




Benedetta Ferrario

Stochastic fluid dynamics


Abstract: I will present some mathematical problems of stochastic fluid dynamics, that have caught my interest along the years. I will consider the basic equations modeling the motion of incompressible viscous fluids, the Navier-Stokes equations, in which the driving force has a random component, the so-called white noise.For these equations I will present some of the main results concerning the statistical description of the motion and some open problems, related to the mathematical analysis of turbulence. In particular I will review different sufficient conditions on the noise forcing term which grant the existence of a unique stationary probability distribution and its role in describing the asymptotic behavior of the fluid motion..
Short-Bio: Benedetta Ferrario obtained her doctorate in Mathematics at Scuola Normale in Pisa; then she got a research position at the University of Pavia, where currently she is professor of Probability. Her research interests are in stochastic analysis; well-posedness of SPDE’s and existence/uniqueness of invariant measures. She worked for many years on SPDE’s related to fluid dynamics. Recently, she started to study the stochastic nonlinear Schrödinger equation.




James Kennedy

Drums that (sometimes) sound the same


Abstract: A common family of inverse problems in mathematical physics involves extracting information about a domain or manifold from properties of the spectrum of a differential operator such as a Laplacian defined on it. Since the eigenvalues of the Laplacian correspond to the resonant frequencies of a vibrating object in the shape of the domain, this question is sometimes reformulated as "what properties of a drum can one hear?". A much stronger form of this question, famously posed by Marc Kac in the 1960s and answered in the negative in the 1990s, is, does the spectrum of the Laplacian uniquely determine a domain up to congruence, that is, "can one hear the shape of a drum?". We will give a brief introduction to this problem, including what evidence Kac had when he formulated his question, and examples of "different drums that sound the same". We will then sketch an elementary proof (adapted from some of the 1990s ones) of the isospectrality of the corresponding domains, and finish by showing how slight changes to the form of the operators involved in the question can lead to a complete breakdown of the isospectrality result and to deep open problems. Parts of this talk are based on joint work with Wolfgang Arendt and A.F.M. ter Elst.
Short-Bio: James Kennedy is an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. He is currently vice-director of the research centre GFM and a member of the direction of SPM, the Portuguese Mathematical Society. He obtained his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2010 and has held postdoctoral and research positions, including a Humboldt fellowship, in Ulm and Stuttgart, Germany, and Lisbon. His research interests are at the intersection of partial differential equations and operator theory, with an emphasis on equations and problems coming from mathematical physics.




Paulo Mateus

Open Problems in Quantum Computation and Cryptography: A Mathematical Perspective

Abstract: In this talk, we will revisit key open questions in quantum computation and cryptography from a mathematical perspective. We'll start by examining the potential falsification of the extended/efficient Church-Turing thesis due to Shor's algorithm and its implications for complexity theory. We'll then explore the impact of quantum computation on modern cryptography, highlighting the main approaches to address these challenges, specifically quantum and post-quantum cryptography. Finally, we'll conclude with a discussion of significant open questions that remain in the field.

Short-Bio: Paulo Mateus obtained his doctorate in Mathematics and was a Postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded the IBM scientific prize in Portugal in 2005. Currently, he is a Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and a researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações. In 2006, he founded and coordinates the Security and Quantum Information Group. His research focuses on quantum resources for security and communication, with over 50 peer-reviewed publications.