Atkin Memorial Lecture and Workshop
Elliptic Curves over Q(sqrt{5})

University of Illinois at Chicago

April 27 through April 29, 2012

A.O.L (Oliver) Atkin, a noted mathematician of international fame and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, died on December 23, 2008 at the age of 83. He made lasting contributions to the theory of numbers: the theory of modular forms (Atkin-Lehner operators, congruences, modular forms for non-congruences groups), theory of partitions, and cryptography (Schoof-Elkies-Atkin Algorithm), among others. He was also a pioneer of the use of computers in mathematics. He was born in England and worked at Bletchley Park in World War II. He completed his doctorate at Cambridge in 1952 under John Littlewood. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1972. Atkin remained mathematically active until his death.

The annual Atkin Memorial Lecture is aimed at remembering Oliver Atkin's lasting contributions to mathematics and the University of Illinois. The previous speakers are Ken Ono (2009), Steve Kudla (2010), and Winnie Li (2011). This year William Stein of University of Washington will give the Atkin Lecture on Friday April 27, 2012 at 3 PM. The lecture will be followed by a two day workshop with the same title as the lecture. The theme of the workshop is elliptic curves over totally real fields, Hilbert modular forms, and the arithmetic of elliptic curves in general.

We have some funding available for participants; scroll down for important details.

Confirmed Speakers

Jennifer Balakrishnan (Harvard)

Jonathan Bober (University of Washington)

John Cremona (Warwick)

Lassina Dembele (Warwick)

Noam Elkies (Harvard)

Edray Goins (Purdue)

Matthew Greenberg (Calgary)

Richard Pinch (Cheltenham)

Kenneth Ribet (Berkeley)

William Stein (University of Washington)

Nike Vatsal (UBC)

John Voight (University of Vermont)

Funding

This workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation and UIC. As soon as you see this announcement, if you think you might want to attend the workshop, please send an email to rtakloo "at" math.uic.edu. Please state in your email if you will need funding, and whether you are a student. Students should ask their advisor to send a short letter of support to the above email address. Women, underrepresented minorities, and young mathematicians are strongly encouraged to apply.

Schedule

Friday, April 27th (LECTURE CENTER F6)
 3:00 PM (Atkin Memorial Lecture) William Stein Elliptic Curves over Q(\sqrt{5}) Slides and the movie 4:15 PM Wine and cheese reception SEO 300 6:30 PM Dinner at the Parthenon Restaurant If you are interested in attending dinner, please send an email to rtakloo at math.uic.edu

Saturday, April 28th (SEO 636)
 8:30-9:30 Ken Ribet Levels of newforms giving rise to a fixed reducible Galois representation 9:30-10 Coffee 10-11 Jennifer Balakrishnan p-adic heights on elliptic curves 11:15-12:15 Lassina Dembele Galois representations and equations of hyperelliptic curves 12:15-2 Lunch 2-3 John Cremona Elusive isogenies and unusual modular curves Note 3-3:30 coffee 3:30-4:30 Richard Pinch Elliptic curves with good reduction away from 2 Slides 4:45-5:45 Noam Elkies Remarks on isogenies over Q(\sqrt{5}) and other number fields Images: 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , notes to come

Sunday, April 29th (SEO 636)
 8:30-9:30 William Stein A Database of Elliptic Curves over $\mathbf{Q}(\sqrt{5})$---First Report Slides and the movie 9:30-10 Coffee 10-11 Jonathan Bober Searching for [equations of] elliptic curves over $Q(\sqrt{5})$ Slides 11:15-12:15 John Voight Computing power series expansions of modular forms slides and the movie 12:15-2 Lunch 2-3 Nike Vatsal Some number theory associated to modular forms on SL(2) Slides and the movie 3-3:30 coffee 3:30-4:30 Matthew Greenberg Definite quaternion algebras and triple product p-adic L-functions 4:45-5:45 Edray Goins Does There Exist an Elliptic Curve $E/ \mathbb Q$ with Mordell-Weil Group $Z_2 \times Z_8 \times \mathbb Z^4$? Slides

Organizers: William Stein and Ramin Takloo-Bighash

All talks will be held in room 636 SEO on the UIC's main campus. A campus map is available here . UIC is easily accessible by public transportation (e.g. UIC-Halsted stop on the Blue Line). For detailed directions see link . A conveniently located hotel is the Crowne Plaza which is on the edge of Chicago's Greektown neighborhood with lots of restaurants and cafes. Another good hotel is the Marriott . This page has lots of useful information about visiting UIC and the city of Chicago. A list of recommended restaurants in the area can be found here . More information to follow.