The Heidelberg Laureate Forum is an annual meeting bringing together winners of the most prestigious scientific awards in Mathematics (Abel Prize, Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize) and Computer Science (ACM Turing Award) with a select group of highly talented young researchers. Roughly 200 young scientists from all over the world get the unique opportunity to interact with their scholarly role models during lectures, panels and discussions. At the same time, the up and coming scientists can engage in inspiring and motivating conversations with the laureates during various social events. The Heidelberg Laureate Forum provides a platform for scientific dialogue across generations.
Each year AMSI and AustMS provide funding for young Australian researchers to attend.
Melissa Lee
University of Western Australia
Where are you in your career? I’m currently studying my Masters in Pure Mathematics at the University of Western Australia, under the supervision of John Bamberg and Michael Giudici.
Why do you want to attend the HLF? I am looking forward to participating in the HLF because it will give me the opportunity to meet many talented young researchers in computer science and mathematics from around the world and engage with outstanding mathematicians and computer scientists who have reached the top of their respective fields. I am excited to hear about their experiences and to gain inspiration from them as I start to look ahead to my own career in mathematics.
Tell us about your research and favourite applications of your work. My research concerns coverings of lines of flock generalised quadrangles, and the groups associated with them. The association schemes that arise from these line covers are reasonably rare, and so are of great interest to people working in other fields of mathematics.
If you could meet any Fields Medalist or Abel Prize winner which would it be and why? If I could meet any Fields Medallist or Abel Prize winner, it would be Maryam Mirzakhani because of the outstanding research she has done, and I would like to hear about her experiences as the first woman to win the Fields Medal.
