Abstract: We will encounter some of the mathematical objects arising naturally in probability theory, as well as some of their surprising properties. In particular, we will see how one of them was involved in the confirmation of the existence of atoms over 100 years ago and how new properties of related objects are still being discovered today.  

Bio-Sketch: Martin Hairer is Professor of Pure Mathematics at EPFL and Imperial College London. He has invigorated and advanced the field of stochastic partial differential equations in particular, and in stochastic analysis and stochastic dynamics in general. He has workd on variants of Hörmander's theorem, systematisation of the construction of Lyapunov functions for stochastic systems, development of a general theory of ergodicity for non-Markovian systems, multiscale analysis techniques, theory of homogenisation, theory of path sampling, theory of rough paths and, on his theory of regularity structures and stochastic quantisation of Yang-Mills field theory more recently. He has won numerous awards and honours, including the Fields Medal (2014) and the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2021). 

This talk is intended for a general mathematics and physics audience, including undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.