Symmetry and Groups

We are adding a spring meeting at Birkbeck to the BSHM calendar.  The first of these will be a one-day BSHM conference on the history of symmetry and groups, supported by the Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics at Birkbeck.  The aim of the day is to look at the history of symmetry and its study through group theory. 

• 9:30 Registration and Coffee
• 10:00 Sarah Hart: ‘Symmetry: before groups and after groups.’(introductory talk)
• 10:40 Peter Neumann: 'Sigola and permutations: there's little symmetry in Galois.'
• 11:30 Coffee
• 11:50 Norman Biggs: 'Coxeter and Conway on the Symmetry of Graphs and Maps.'
• 12:40 Lunch
• 14:00 Mark Ronan: 'Les belles au bois dormant: Strange beauties hidden in the undergrowth.'
• 14:50 Rob Curtis: ‘Sphere-packing, the Leech lattice and the Conway group.’
• 15:40 Tea
• 16:00 Siobhan Roberts: ‘Symmetries & Asymmetries, Coxeter & Conway.’
• 17:00 End

 Registration will be £5 for students, £10 for BSHM members and Birkbeck staff, and £20 for non-members.

Registration is now closed. The registration fee includes tea and coffee but not lunch, as we wanted to keep the registration fee to a minimum. There are numerous places to eat within easy walking distance of Birkbeck.