Lindsay Dever (Math) at the Göttingen Summer School on L2-torsion and Symmetric Spaces 2019

Lindsay Dever, Ph.D. Candidate in Mathematics, attended the Summer School on L-2 Torsion and Symmetric Spaces from September 30 to October 4 at the University of Göttingen in Germany. The program was an opportunity for a small, international group of graduate students to take intensive seminars with leading mathematicians in L2-torsion and its relationship to topology and geometry.

L2-torsion is a spectral invariant of certain geometric spaces, one major area of interest for Lindsay. Her experience at the summer school allowed her to network with graduate students with similar interests while hearing lectures from Nicolas Bergeron (Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu-Paris Rive Gauche), Werner Müller (Universität Bönn), Damien Gaboriau (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), and Steffen Kionke (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology).

While in Göttingen, Lindsay spent some time exploring the city and also visited the Gauss Observatory. It was here that the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) used the observatory for groundbreaking research on magnetism. It now operates as an active seismetological station.