09/04/2020

Workshop that was to take place in Marseille gets a virtual version.

The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily suspended much of the 2020 scientific calendar. Respecting social isolation, a necessary measure to contain the disease, researchers have been working to create new formats for planned conferences, events, and activities. This is the case with the workshop " Varieties with Trivial Canonical Class ." The meeting, with 60 registered participants, was scheduled for this week at the International Center for Mathematical Encounters (CIRM) in Marseille, southern France; it has been adapted to a virtual version, with recorded lectures and online discussion sessions among participants.

“We were very excited; it would be the first time that the mathematicians who worked on the proof of the theorem, the main protagonists of this story, would be gathered together. We couldn't throw all this effort away,” says IMPA researcher Jorge Vitório Pereira, one of the event organizers . The mathematician was already in France, occupying the Jean-Morlet Chair at CIRM, where he was to spend six months. With the worsening of the pandemic, he returned to Brazil and has been trying to continue his activities here.

With the support of the French institution and the collaboration of the invited speakers, the organizing committee managed to divide the workshop into ten lectures and two online discussion sessions, which will take place on April 1Wednesdays and 1Fridays. Presentations by Arnaud Beauville (University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis), Ekaterina Amerik (University of Paris-Sud), and Henri Guenancia (CNRS, University of Toulouse Paul Sabatier) are already available on the event page . Registered participants and speakers will receive a link to join the broadcast of the discussion sessions. Others interested can send questions to jvp@impa.br and watch the presentations on YouTube .

“We made this decision knowing that this is a new situation for everyone. We didn't demand a high degree of commitment from the speakers because we know that most of them are busy planning virtual classes, entertaining their children, and taking care of the house, and couldn't spend five hours a day on this,” comments the organizer, who is also experiencing a new hectic routine. “Here at home, we've never worked so much.” His son, Jorginho, watches the video lessons provided by the school, and his wife, biomathematician Dayse Haime Pastore, spends the day poring over the epidemic's numbers, says Jorge, who emphasizes that family support has been essential.