Title: Formulas for Degeneracy Loci
Speaker: William Fulton (University of Michigan)
Abstract: In the 1840's, Cayley and Salmon found formulas for the loci of m by n matrices which do not have maximal rank. Because these varieties are defined by many more equations than their codimension, finding such formulas has been a challenge and stimulus to the development of intersection theory. This talk will sketch some of this history, which continues today.
Biosketch: William Fulton works in algebraic geometry, and is currently the Oscar Zariski Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1966, and held faculty positions at Brown University and the University of Chicago, before moving to Michigan in 1998. He has held visiting positions at Aarhus, IHES, IAS, MSRI, and Mittag-Leffler. In 1996 he was awarded the Steele Prize for Exposition for his book on Intersection Theory, and in 2010 he was awarded the Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Foreign Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.
