Annual Undergraduate Awards
Every year the Mathematics Department nominates undergraduate students to receive awards recognizing outstanding achievement in mathematics and contributions to the mathematics community within Northwestern University. These annual prizes are awarded at a gala departmental ceremony held in late spring.
2023-2024 Mathematics Undergraduate Awards
The 2023-2024 Mathematics Undergraduate Awards Celebration will be held Wednesday, May 22nd at 5p in Swift Hall Rm 107. The featured speaker will be Bjorn Noonen of MIT. Here is the information for Bjorn’s talk:
Title: Undecidability in Number Theory
Abstract: Hilbert's tenth problem asked for an algorithm that, given a multivariable polynomial equation with integer coefficients, would decide whether there exists a solution in integers. Around 1970, Matiyasevich, building on earlier work of Davis, Putnam, and Robinson, showed that no such algorithm exists. But the answer to the analogous question with integers replaced by rational numbers is still unknown, and there is not even agreement among experts as to what the answer should be.