Oliver Smithies Lecture - Professor Nicolaos Kapouleas

Thursday, 18 June 2026, 5.15pm to 6.15pm

https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/[…]/oliver-smithies-lecture

Abstract: Soap films can be viewed as mathematical geometric objects and are then called minimal surfaces.

Of particular interest to Geometers are minimal surfaces in Euclidean space, in the round three-sphere (which is the three-dimensional analogue of the usual two-dimensional unit sphere), and in the unit ball in Euclidean space.

There are various methods to prove the existence of (construct) such surfaces and study their geometry.

This has been an important subject in Geometry over the last two hundred years.

I will describe the current status with emphasis in the progress made in the last twenty years and the open questions we hope to answer in the future.

All are welcome. Please RSVP to college.​office@​balliol.​ox.​ac.​uk if you would like to attend. Refreshments will be available after the lecture.

Speaker(s): Professor Nicolaos Kapouleas (Brown University)

Venue: Balliol College - Gillis Lecture theatre - Gillis Lecture theatre Balliol College Broad Street Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3BJ United Kingdom

Department: Balliol College (College)

Organiser: Balliol College

Register here: https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/events/2026/june/18/oliver-smithies-lecture