Karen Uhlenbeck: Some Thoughts on the Calculus of Variations

Abstract:
I will talk about some of the classic problems in the calculus of variations, and describe some of the mathematics which was developed to solve them. We will begin with the Greeks and end with some of the tantalizing problems of today.

This lecture was given by the 2019 Abel Laurate Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck at The University of Oslo, May 22, 2019 and was part of the Abel Prize Lectures in connection with the Abel Prize Week celebrations.

Program for the Abel Lecture 2019
1. "Some Thoughts on the Calculus of Variations" by Abel Laureate Karen K. Uhlenbeck, University of Texas at Austin, USA
2. "Solitons in Geometry" by professor Chuu-LianTerng, UC Irvine
3. "Limits, Bubbles, and Singularities: An introduction to the fundamental ideas of Karen Uhlenbeck" by professor Robert Bryant, Duke University
4. "An Attempt to Visualise Minimal Surfaces and Maximum Dimensions" by Matt Parker, Standupmaths

[RalphDratman]

An Abel Prize winner who makes her work sound so approachable! Wonderful.

[peterduveen]

I'm no expert, but I enjoyed the historical ride, and especially how Dr. Uhlenbeck came into her stride as the lecture progressed.

[rsassine]

That is a very beautiful and understandable lecture.

[albetronkhan]

Newton, Bernoulli, l'hospital or leibnitz----all these men gave a wrong solution to Braichistochrone problem.
They were physicists and their solutions, even if wrong, is acceptable.
But someome claiming himself/herself as a mathematician, and at that getting an Abel prize, should not make the same mistakes...it's quite shameful. Mathematicians are born and not made..
"Made in university" mathematicians have done nothing in a century, except to" bureaucratize" mathematics..Rote learning is no learning.