04/06/2019

The mathematics without borders of the Senegalese Khadim War

Khadim War's native language is Wolof, a language common in West African countries. Born in Louga, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants where people mainly live off subsistence farming and cattle trading, he chose mathematics and quickly became a polyglot.

After graduating and obtaining a master's degree from Gaston-Berge University in Senegal, Khadim went on to achieve international recognition: he earned his doctorate at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy; and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Bochum in Germany.

Driven by his mathematical journey, he recently arrived in Brazil to occupy room 402 at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA). "Rio is now my home," says a smiling Khadim, the institute's newest associate researcher, in Portuguese.

From the area of Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory, he dedicates himself especially to the study of the geometric properties of partially hyperbolic and non-uniformly-hyperbolic systems, as well as to the sub-Riemmanian geometric questions that arise from dynamical systems.

To a layperson, Khadim would say that he is interested in something that is part of everyone's life: chaotic dynamic systems.

“Most systems in the world are chaotic. Weather forecasting and the way our hearts beat, for example. The heartbeat is not periodic. We demonstrate this with mathematics. What I do is exactly that: create mathematical models so that we can understand these systems. It's pure mathematics,” he explains.

Khadim's journey to IMPA began four years ago, during his PhD at ICTP. He heard about the institute from his then-supervisor, Stefano Luzzatto, who, in turn, had completed his doctorate at IMPA, under the supervision of Marcelo Viana and Jacob Palis. At the end of 2015, he spent two months at the institute as a visiting professor.

Khadim War em apresentação no Festival da Matemática, em 2017 Foto: Imprensa/IMPA

The season was productive. Two years later, he returned to Rio to speak at the Mathematics Festival , an event held by IMPA that brought together 18,000 people interested in lectures and playful activities on the subject.

According to Khadim, showing how mathematics is part of everyday life, as happened at the Festival, is a fundamental way for society to become interested in the subject.

At home, it was like this, says the Senegalese man, son of a teacher and a seamstress. He learned from his father to identify it in everyday situations. "He taught us to like mathematics," says Khadim, who has one brother and six sisters.

Regarding mathematics in schools, she believes that the way it is taught makes all the difference. Therefore, she wanted to contribute more directly to changing this reality by participating in a program to teach the subject in basic education, when she was still living in Senegal.

“The idea was to show students how they can identify and use mathematics in real life. In school, equations are often simply written on the board. This makes students fear mathematics because they are unaware of the applications of equations and how they are used to solve everyday problems, such as in weather forecasting.”

Khadim enjoyed the experience so much that he did the same in Trieste. And although he finds it difficult to speak to people without a background in the field, he says he enjoys giving presentations to laypeople. “It’s important to explain what we do to non-mathematicians as well. Especially to students and their parents. So that the family knows the value of mathematics.”

With numerous research results, most notably the generalization of a theorem over a century old by the German mathematician Ferdinand Frobenius (1849-1917), Khadim says that entering IMPA, such a prestigious research center, was not easy. After much effort, one thing is certain: "I'm home," he repeats, satisfied.