Meet Mathematica!
The 2025-2026 Committee:
Jamara Admiraal (Chair), Milène Mandeville (Secretary), Remco de Jong (Treasurer), Tijmen van der Ree, Yoni Zuidinga, Robin Janssen, Ilinca Antonache
At Mathematica, we organise various events throughout the year, all related to the great subject of mathematics! Our most popular event is the yearly integration competition, where students and staff compete against each other to determine who can integrate the best and the fastest. The champion gets crowned the `Grand Integrator of the FMF'. You can have a look at some of the integrals used for the competition:
Mathematica also organises the LES (Lecture Entertainment Series), a series of informal lectures, held on campus, focusing on various topics in (applied) mathematics. Snacks and drinks are provided, which really help break the impression of sitting in a classroom during a normal lecture. Examples of past talks include:
- Tamás Görbe on the Mercury Mystery and how Einstein beat Newton at mathematics;
- Kanat Camlibel on online experiment design for system identification and the maths behind the game of Mastermind;
- Gilles Bonnet on stochastic geometry through a series of examples and historical problems;
- Juan Peypouquet on the implication of the Hahn-Banach separation theorem.
- Robbert Scholtens on the beautiful (in)applicability of origami in solving polynomial equations
- Ekin Özman on how various attempts—and even mistakes—in proving Fermat's Last Theorem have shaped the development of modern ideas and techniques in number theory
- Jaap Top on congruent numbers and where they come from
While this sounds awfully formal, we make sure the talks are enjoyable and not sleep inducing. At Mathematica, we believe that mathematics can be explained and explored in many different ways, and that it doesn't necessarily mean only sitting down in classroom and taking notes the `traditional' way.
In category theory, the prefix "co" refers to a complementary relationship or a dual concept. LES is when a professor gives a talk in front of students, so CoLES is when... In 2025 we held our first ever CoLES, an event in which some brave and passionate students gave a short presentation on topics of their choice, for about 5-10 mins, as a good way to break the scariness of talking in front of an audience!
Do you have any questions/remarks about these events? You can reach us at mathematica@fmf.nl!