Thursday, September 29, 2011

Tips for new residents at Montreal (downtown)

How to enjoy winter?

- snowshoes and cross country skies: you can rent the equipment $10/day, $30/week at McGill gym. They also have 3-hour intro classes at ~$30 with rental included. The tracks are maintained Dec-March, it's free to go to one of "grand parcs" of Montreal. Including Mont Royal, right behind the school, or Angrignon park, La Fontaine etc... (You might want to consider joining McGill or Montreal Outdoor Club to find company)

- At these parks, also ice skating is free (on frozen lakes). Rental is optional.

- At Old port, there's quay, where you can skate with music and fireworks ($6 for rink)

- snowboarding, skiing through McGill snowboard club. $90/year membership, and all your skiing needs taken care of! (discounted lift ticket etc)

- you must buy snow boots. $50 or more, it will cost.

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Best grocery store

Marche Lobo - cheap, and they carry pesticide-free mushrooms from Quebec
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/marche-lobo-montreal

"SEGAL’s: Cheapest in the whole city. Not great for fresh produce (although it’s cheap), but everything else is a bargain price. Noisiest. Least clean. But the savings! Huge selection of packaged organic goods at amazing prices. 4001 St. Laurent, East side just south of Duluth. The sign just says “Epicerie”. Closed Sundays. 845-4716" or try this http://urbanhaven.ca/guides/groceries

metro, provigo etc, they all have different places, depending on which part of city.

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Pharmacy

the prices all differ, highest in downtown, and cheaper as you go further away.
Pharmaprix > Uniprix > Provigo
for the price and selection range.
I like provigo on Du Parc and Sherbrooke, the pharmacists are very caring, and spend time to answer your questions and recommend products (not blind recommendation, but with lots of explanations and specific details.)

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Conversion between US and Canada stores

K-mart, target <-> Zellers
all the cheap stuff you can buy.
target, hardward <-> Canadian tire.
you can fill up your house with stuff from Canadian tire easily.

Don't forget Dollar stores (Dollarama)

Bodyshop <-> Fruits and passion

Staples <-> Bureau en gros

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Piano - you can practice in music library.

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Viandal - they sell best meat, and deliver, if more than $20.
closed on Sunday. Call before 1pm for delivery on the same day.
phone 514-766-9906, 766-0100 fax 4692
550 ave de l'eglise, verdun, QC, H4G 2M4
viandalcharcuterie@bellnet.ca

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(follow me on http://jihyeseo.yelp.ca for other recommendations)

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Best dentist (for pgss plan)


Clinique Dentaire La Cité
Dr. Donald Collins
Place du Parc 300 Leo Pariseau Street, Suite 920, Montréal, QC, H2X 4B3
(514) 288-8531

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Permanent residency application (free service)
http://permanentresidency.ca/services

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Posted by at 10:53 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

FYI: Eduroam wireless - no need to create wireless accounts for some visitors

Dear all,

This is a tip for visitors as well as when we are visiting other schools.

Recently I learned that I can connect to wifi at Univ de Montreal with
my McGill ID.
This is thanks to Eduroam, http://www.eduroam.org/

This also means that visitors from many other institutions can connect
to wifi at McGill, with their own ID from their own school. For this,
choose "eduroam" in the list of the available wireless network, and
log-in, as if you are logging in with your McGill wpa.mcgill.ca
network.

Eduroam has a huge network in Europe, and many in Canada and USA. For example,

In Canada, we can connect to (just partial list)
Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, University of
Alberta, McMaster University, University of Toronto, University of
Waterloo, Concordia University, École Polytechnique de Montréal,
Université de Montréal

In USA (partial list)
Cornell University , University of California , University of Chicago,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland -
College Park , Brown University , Columbia University , Penn State
University, Stanford University, University of Michigan , Yale
University, Texas AM University , University of Wisconsin - Madison

Ciao!

Best regards,
Jihye
Posted by at 11:27 AM 0 comments Links to this post

[McGill] FYI: Creating wireless accounts for visitors (even for multiple days)

I think now I learned how to make wireless accounts for visitors, for *multiple* days as well.
I am sharing this with you, in case.

[Step 1: Make 1-day wireless account] (almost copying Wang Yi's email)

Here you can apply for wireless accounts for guests. Login using
mcgill email address (@mcgill.ca or @mail.mcgill.ca, not the physics
department account), then fill a form to apply for a one-day account.
One can apply 5 such accounts per day.

https://search.mcgill.ca/fasttrack/index.cgi?appl=guest

[Step 2: Request extension for those accounts] (thanks Pat Scott for encouragements and tips)
As explained here, http://kb.mcgill.ca/kb/?ArticleId=1021#tab:homeTab:crumb:7:artId:1021
ask for extension at ICS service desk.

*The Guest Network Account will be active for one day. If you need an account to be activated longer than one day, create the Guest Network Account first, and then contact the ICS Service Desk to request additional time. Be sure to provide the username of the account. (I specified the dates, names, and usernames)

http://webforms.mcgill.ca/contact/contact.asp?article=1797&bhcp=1

I made requests for some visitors, and got a positive confirmation email.
I haven't had a visitor to test the result experimentally.

I have given out 1-day account to all the prospective seminar speakers. For those I know the duration of the stay, I also had their 1-day accounts to be extended through an extra step. I will extend others accounts, as I learn their travel dates.
Posted by at 11:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

[tips & links] Montreal - concerts, eating, transportation, gym, housing, learning French, immigrating, etc

Montreal Newspapers

In French
 
Concerts & Going Out
Montreal is very rich culturally, and you will find amply opportunities to enjoy music and art. 
Feel free to ask me questions about ballet and classical music concerts in Montreal.

Eating
Check out this yelp page http://www.yelp.ca/c/montreal/restaurants to read restaurant reviews.
Even if you go to a random restaurant in Montreal, it is likely to be cheaper, healthier and more delicious than average American place.
Red Thai is a fancy and delightful Thai restaurant.

If you are looking into eating or buying fancy chocolates for your friends, http://www.julietteetchocolat.com/ (try their chocolate fondue) and http://suite88.com/ (a beautiful display of ice cream using fruits) will bring you to a chocolate paradise.

In McGill campus, they sell organic vegetables and bread at Organic Campus http://organiccampus.blogspot.com/.

Transportation
Montreal has great public transportation. (very clean!!) McGill University is in downtown, and you can walk to virtually everywhere. 

Gym & Working Out & Fitness
These places offer drop-in classes, which you can try even if you are here for a short term.

McGill gym (http://www.mcgill.ca/athletics/) has great facilities and offers interesting courses (horse-riding, cross country skiing, ballet, belly dancing, CPR, etc). There are also various athletic clubs you can join at McGill, such as fencing (http://mcgillfencing.com/), sailing (http://www.mcgillsailing.org/), triathlon (http://www.mcgill-triathlon.com/), and snowboarding (http://www.mcgillsnowboardclub.com/ open to everyone to join, weekly bus rides to ski/snowboard) 

These are membership gyms.

Housing
Rental/sublet advertisements & listings

Essential advice on renting in Montreal
Popular housing options
  • http://en.lacite.com/accueil.aspx La Cite - it contains hotel, grocery stores, medical clinics, post office, movie theatre, and a gym. (Carpet flooring, expensive)
  • http://www.plazahutchison.com/ - the whole building is smoke-free. Very clean and quiet (has various regulations about recycling and keeping it quiet)

Learning French
Immigrating to Quebec
Posted by at 3:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post

[tip] Starting as a new postdoc at McGill University

I recently graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in physics, and I started as a new postdoc at Physics Department of McGill University as of July 1 2010. Most people start their postdoc jobs in September, and lots of people go on vacation in summer months. As a result, I stumbled upon administrative dead-ends a few times while I try to register as a postdoc in July. I learned how things work here, in a hard way. I hope that my tips will help your settlement easier. However, this is just one example, and you should use your judgment - it is your life.

Applying for the postdoc positions at McGill University
McGill Physics homepage will have job postings, and you can apply by email. Before you apply, it is a good idea to check in with professors whom you want to work with. If you have a decent GPS (3.7/4.0), consider applying to Tomlinson Fellowship, but it will be a university-wide competition.

Assuming you received and accepted the job offer from McGill, the next step is applying for visa. 
(For non-Canadians) - see this website from McGill

Applying for Canadian Work Permit (before coming to work at McGill)

If you are US citizen, you might skip this step, and take longer at the border at your first entry. 

- I applied for Canadian Work Permit by USPS express mail to New York Consulate. (They have phone numbers but they never answer.)
 
- For photos, you can take US passport photos at CVS, and cut with scissors into Canadian size. (It might take some trial and error, because the range of face size is different for US and Canadian passports.) If you go to a more professional service where they take Canadian size photos, it may be 3-4 times more expensive.

- For the fee, it was $150 Canadian dollars or $140 US dollars. I made a check for $150 US dollars, and they returned the whole application through US regular mail. (It created 2 weeks delay)


Things to do before you arrive at McGill
  • You might want to look into extending current medical insurance (read along to find out why)
  • You should arrange for moving. In my case, I used Relocube from ABF U-pack company.


Assuming the visa. moving, and travel all went smoothly, now you arrived at McGill.

Things to do ASAP once you arrive at McGill (or Montreal) are listed on McGill website.
- For SIN application, you need no new documents from the University (other than the job invitation letter they sent long time ago), so this can be done even if University Staff is on holiday.
- For Medicare application, you need SIN number and a new document from University. Job offer letter might not be valid for medicare application if it is older than 45-60 days. - Your medical insurance will be effective after a waiting period of 3 (calendar) months from your arrival (or application date). http://www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca/en/citoyens/assurancemaladie/index.shtml

Now you are ready to register as a postdoc. Even if Department Staff (Diane and Eddie, if you are in Physics) is not around, you can download registration documents here http://www.mcgill.ca/gps/postdocs/becoming/registration/ and fill them out, get signatures from Professors (one from your research group and another from Department Chair). Hand them in James Building to Martinez Eggman. In my case, she was on vacation, so Fiorella Lizi helped me on that. Among the required documents for registration, your PhD diploma needs to be in English or French. Otherwise, they need some authorized translation. (Talk to GPS to find out exactly what they want) You may need to allow some extra time for this process.

Martinez will put you on a temporary medical insurance, which has a very limited coverage, and which will expire itself while you travel outside of Quebec. In my case this insurance was useless, so I bought a temporary medical insurance from my home country. If you might be traveling during your first 3 months of postdoc, look into buying another temporary medical insurance out of your pocket, and do it in advance. (There can be a waiting period, a month in my case.)When you are registered, you will get ID number and you can log-in to Minerva, McGill emails, and myMcGill etc. (You can put in your bank account information for pay check direct deposit, and file for travel or relocation expense reimbursement requests)

After you are registered (you might wait for 24-48 hours), you can go to Service Point to make an McGill ID card. You take a photo, and they give you the card on the spot. In mid July, it took 10 minutes for me.

Once you have your ID card, you bring it to an appropriate Staff at your Department (Louise at Physics Department) in order to obtain building access. It may also take 1-2 business days.
You can bring your ID card to any library, to set up your library account as well. (It should work from Minerva and library website already, but in my case I had to go in person)

Seperately from Quebec Medicare, you may enroll for PGSS health plan as well.  (for non Canadians ?)
http://thomsonhouse.ca/wordpress/services-for-members/health-dental
It will cover prescription drugs (with no annual limit, as long as it is in their list of drugs they support. - Check with Marilou.)

In Physics department, you get your office keys from Louise and you can get a new chair from Diane(? to be confirmed).
Posted by at 1:21 PM 0 comments Links to this post

[intro 2/2] Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics

Continuing on the introduction to Simons Workshop.... (see the first half of the introduction here)


Review of various housing options

Largely, the workshop tend to put professors at Hotel Danfords (and 3 Village Inn), and others at the Campus Housing (dorm) and Holiday Inn Express. But they do ask for your preferences, whether you prefer dorm/hotel/b&b, and what area you like to be in. For example, I asked for Port Jefferson area, so I got assigned to Hotel Danfords.

If you have a car, hotel Danfords and Holiday Inn Express are the best options.
If you don't have a car, Holiday Inn Express and Campus Housing might be the best. (Danfords is okay if you are willing to do your own laundry in your bathroom)

Bed and Breakfast - it depends on your luck!


During past 6 summers (2005-2010), I explored 6 different housing options.
Your room might come with extra empty beds, but they never assign you with a roommate.

1) Campus Housing (Roth Quad) : for 5 summers (2005-2009)
- The custodians clean the bathroom and the living room every weekday morning.
- Fridge rental available (at an affordable price with weekly charge) - Staff at housing office might say that they don't have it, but it may mean that they don't know or they don't want to bother to learn. If you are persistent, you can get things done with them.
- Some units come with kitchen
- You might be sharing bathroom and kitchen with up to 2 others in same gender.
- Campus housing closes for the last half of August, to set-up for incoming college students. If workshop meets in August, you will eventually have to move out of the dorm for the last 2 weeks.
- People at housing office not so professional. (many of them are part-time students, and to meet someone in charge, you might have to go during the weekday business hours. But still important people tend to be on vacation.)
- Has cheap laundry facilities
- BEST if you want to work at your office all the time until late, and if you do NOT have a car.


2) Bed and Breakfast (2 in walking distance from the Campus, 1 in driving distance) 
- They are fine, but getting rides can be a hassle. In some years, the workshop hired their grad student as a van driver, who shuttled people back and forth from bed and breakfasts.
- Depending on B&B, your luck, and weather, you might get into some trouble.
- B&B can come with pleasant surprises too. Interesting books on their bookshelf, interesting people (tenants and landladies), interesting opportunities for going out.
- If you are staying at B&B, just remember that things might not go smoothly (e.g. repairs taking forever), but in most cases, nothing bad happens and your stay can be relaxing and enriching.
- no laundry facilities, not so much privacy or freedom to do your laundry at B&B. You can try to get rides to laundromats or sneak into graduate dorms to do laundry there.


  2a) Bayles Estate Bed and Breakfast, on the West of the campus (2005)
  - Really delicious home-made breakfast, this has many rooms, so the chances are that you will find other Simons Workshop participants here.
  - Do not agree to help with their farm chickens, though.

  2b) Bed and (no) Breakfast, in a neighboring city (2006)
  2c) Bed and (no) Breakfast, on the North of the campus, near Stony Brook rail station.  (2007)

3) Holiday Inn Express (2009)
- Self-service breakfast (buffet-style, some fresh fruits, whole/skim/soy milk, breads, eggs) every morning
- Shuttle services to Stony Brook campus, train stations, Port Jefferson ferry. (Ends at 10:30pm-ish)
- If you are lucky, you might get a ride to/from airports. If you are unlucky, you might wait for the shuttle bus for hours. (They aren't punctual. You better call them in that situation.)
- It's in the middle of nowhere, but there is a shopping mall nearby with a few restaurants(Chili's, subway), a full large grocery store (with all the fresh products too), and an electronic store (best buy?)
- has fitness facility and swimming pool (check hours)

4) Hotel Danfords (2010)
- Self-service breakfast (buffet-style, fresh fruits, whole milk, breads, ...) included during the weekdays only. (Omelets at $10)
- Fridge rental ($10 per day) and laundry service ($3 per pair of socks) are available in principle but unaffordable.  I handwashed my laundry at a sink basin and dried on towel rack.
- No shuttle service to train station
- CVS (pharmacy) and convenience store (Village Grocery) in walking distance, but no fresh grocery (vegetables) in walking distance.
- No kitchen in the unit (not even microwave), but mine did come with coffee pot
- They charge $2 per toothpaste and they don't have cotton swabs. - bring your own please.
- Very loud from the streets and hotel parties until 11:30pm every night.
- Fitness area (tiny) available 24/7 (and free)

How to travel to here

If you are flying, the closest airport is Islip, but usually air fare is very high there. I recommend flying to JFK airport. Assuming you arrived at JFK, here goes travel instruction.

JFK airport -> Jamaica : use $5 air-train. It comes every 2-10 minutes, and the travel takes 10 minutes. A very pleasant and smooth ride. The ticket looks the same as the NYC metro ticket. Ticket vending machines look just like NYC subway ticket machines

Jamaica -> Stony Brook station (going towards Port Jefferson, the last stop) :
(fare is the same for Stony Brook and Port Jefferson)
take a train (~$10) Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)
It comes every 2 hours, and it takes 1.5 hours for the travel. (2 hours if from New York Penn Station)
You will have to transfer trains at Huntington (sometimes Hicksville or Jamaica).
Check schedules.
If you happened to take a train whose connection is not immediately following behind, then you might have to go to the opposite platform. (No elevator at Huntington?) For example, I took the earliest possible train from Jamaica to Huntington, and then I took a snack at Huntington station, the next train towards Stony Brook departed from the opposite platform. It was hard to carry luggages but they didn't charge me a fee for the stop-over I made.

From Stony Brook train station (many taxis waiting there), Campus housing and the Workshop are in walking distances, and if you are lucky the University Shuttle will be running and they happily take you on.
In order to reach Holiday Inn Express, you want to take a taxi or hotel shuttle.
In order to reach Hotel Danfords, you take off the train at Port Jefferson Train station. The hotel is 30 minutes away on foot. Taxi will cost around $7. There aren't many taxis waiting at the Port Jefferson Train station, they might car-pool you in the taxi, and you might wait for a while.

Traveling Around 

Taxis are expensive and often un-punctual. (time uncertainty can be around 1 hour in odd hours)
Local buses are cheap and punctual ($1.5, time uncertainty around 5 minutes) but infrequent. The buses 60, 69, and 76 serve between Port Jefferson and Stony Brook. The Local buses website has schedule and map.
Some people bike and drive. I never tried that.


Eating options

Near Port Jefferson Ferry:
Salsa Salsa (mexican, no tip), Catch (seafood, tip), Steam Room (seafood, tip/no tip)- I like their steamed vegetables and broiled seafood, Kababaluba (kebab, no tip), Pita Z (fondue, tip), Pasta Pasta (tip)

I hear these were good, too: Ruvo (tip), Wave (expensive, tip),

Near Port Jefferson train station: Hana (sushi Korean/Japanese, tip), PJ Lobster House (tip)

Near Stony Brook train station: Green Cactus (mexican, no tip), Strawberry fields, ... (mediocre options)

Campus dining (accepting credit cards): Student Activities Center cafeteria (salad bar), Jasmine at Wong Center (Indian and Chinese). I hear the best dining on campus is at the Medical Center

Pastime

Stony Brook gym facilities - they have swimming pool and gym where visitors can enter with visitor ID card (or sometimes with name tag from the workshop). To obtain ID cards, you need to talk to a few people in the math/physics departments and then a few at the University administration. It may take a few days or more, but it is free. (To replace a lost card, pay $20-ish.) Wellness Center is not available to visitors, but your visitor ID card can get into their nice facility, and you can enjoy it until they catch and throw you out.
Swimming pool is warm. You need your Stony Brook Visitor ID to swim there. (You give your card to the life guard while you swim.) Bathing cap not required. Pool hours in summer are roughly 8-9am certain mornings and 12-1pm almost everyday, 6-7pm many evenings.
The gym hours are more generous. You can't use free weights there (free weight room is locked up), and to use machine weights you have to bring your own pins. (Nautilus pin for some machines and Universal pin for some others). You will have to order them online in advance of the travel here. I tried so hard to buy them in local stores, but it seems impossible. (They are rare even at online stores)

Running along campus road (circle road?) on campus is enjoyable. Not much of car traffic, and it feels safe. Fireflies are pretty to watch as you run. Running near Port Jefferson Ferry is also fun. You could run in rich neighborhoods such as Belle Terre, along Cliff road, or along the beach (sand and pebble). Do not mistake Port Jefferson Each Beach for Port Jefferson Ferry though, they are 6 miles apart from each other, and not a good place to get lost. 

Piano - not in such a great condition, the piano does exist and you can practice there. (in music building)

(If you have a car, you could drive to beaches in Fire Island or Montauk. Since I don't, I took trains to NYC)


Pastime in New York City
Until mid July, there will be ballet performances at Lincoln Center in New York City by American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, and you can ask me questions about their performances.

I hope you all enjoy your time at Stony Brook, inside and outside of the campus.

For your safety:
- Air conditioning can be strong, so bring warm clothes (long trousers, socks, and shoes too) and prevent cold.
- Since your diet and exercise plan may change here, watch your fiber and water intake. 
- On the beach, wear sun screen and be aware of mosquitoes (not allowed to use snorkel)
- In unforeseen medical emergency, I am sorry to hear, I testify that Stony Brook Medical Center provides an excellent care, and hope you get better soon!
Posted by at 12:16 PM 0 comments Links to this post

[intro 1/2] Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics

Let me introduce you to Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics, which meets at Stony Brook University, every summer since 2003. I attended it every summer since 2005, for weeks each time. Based on my experience, I will also write about various options for housing, travel, pastime, and eating (in part 2). I will try to stay neutral and informative, as I never officially belonged to Stony Brook University or its research centers such as YITP or Simons Center. (However, I have to admit that I am friends with a bunch of people there, and Prof Vafa is my PhD advisor. I might be biased.) At least I am writing voluntarily, with a hope that many of future participants will enjoy their time here.

The idea for Simons Workshop started several years ago. Professor Jim Simons (Mathematics, Stony Brook Univeristy) greatly enjoyed a talk given by Professor Cumrun Vafa (Physics, Harvard Univeristy)  (at Stony Brook?), and invited him to Stony Brook University, in a form of summer workshops. Prof Vafa serves as a Scientific Advisor, and he sketches theme, overview, and schedule of the workshop. Many professors at Stony Brook University help with organization. Especially Professor Martin Rocek puts enormous effort, time, energy, and his heart into these workshops.

The first two Simons Workshops (which I didn't attend) were in 2003 (August 11 - September 7) and 2004 (July 26 - August 27). The program from the second Simons Workshop (2004) is available here, and you can download lecture notes as well. You can see that there used to be two talks per day, and Prof Vafa gave several lectures there. (Later the number of talks will reduce by half.)

As you may confirm here, activities from Simons Workshops led to numerous important research papers. (I hear an unconfirmed rumor that some earlier workshop was related to 2006 Field Medal of Andrei Okounkov, but I do not know whether he came to any Simons Workshop.) In the year 2004, the Workshop gave birth to a review paper (which saved my life) on topological string theory Topological strings and their physical applications by Andrew Neitzke and Cumrun Vafa. 

In 2005(July 25 - August 26), the number of talks got reduced into 1 talk per day. A few rare exceptions were when we had 2-3 talks per day. Prof Vafa talked only twice during the whole workshop. (This is the first Simons Workshop I attended.) There were beach talks at Smith Point Beach (South Shore of the Long Island, in Fire Island, 1 hour drive away from campus) every Wednesday. On the beach, we used huge white papers, instead of black boards. Prof Witten gave a Langland talk on the beach, and I kept that paper with his handwriting for many years. (Sorry, no longer available)

Workshop organizers accepted volunteers (students and postdocs) to take lecture notes from the talks into PDF format. Also Ari Pakman arranged to record the talks, which available in real audio and mp3 format here. I greatly enjoyed Vafa's talk The swamp surrounding the landscape, Kristian Kennaway's Dimer models and quiver gauge theories [mp3] [RealAudio], and Sergei Gukov's Unification of Knot Homologies [mp3: 1, 2] [RealAudio: 1, 2]. There were also math clinics by Prof Dennis Sullivan, where physicists and mathematicians teach each other, and try to learn each other's language.

There was a welcome dinner at a local Indian restaurant led by Prof Hirosi Ooguri. Every Friday afternoon, we could join Physics Department for their Friday Keg (drinking beer). 
Prof Martin Rocek invited everyone to his house, and he cooked a very delicious dinner! There I met his student (at that time) Dr Keun Young Kim, who became a very good friend and mentor to me. At Martin's parties, we sing, play piano and guitar. It's very informal and a lot of fun! (A piece of warning for some people - there is no air conditioning, so dress accordingly) There is a huge yard we can play in, and it touches a shore and looks to the ocean. (Can see some birds, fireflies, and stars too).

In 2006 (July 24 - August 25), Prof Greg Moore gave a talk Split Polar Attractors [MP3: 1] [RealAudio: 1] [WMA: 1] based on his work with Prof Frederik Denef. (I remember being pleasantly surprised at the fact that he looks very young and he was very nice about giving lots of credit to Frederik.). Other memorable talks were Non-supersymmetric Meta-stable Vacua from Brane Configurations [MP3: 1] [RealAudio: 1] [WMA: 1] by Sebastian Franco and Geometric Methods in (0,2) Theories and a Generalization of Quantum Cohomology [MP3: 1, 2] [RealAudio: 1, 2] [WMA: 1, 2] by Sheldon Katz. At the Simons Workshop 2006, we started working on supersymmetry breaking in type IIB string theory compactified on a non-compact Calabi-Yau threefold with local conifolds. It lead to my first paper. It's with Prof Vafa, Prof Mina Aganagic, and Chris Beem. (There was a party at Jim Simons estate.)

The next workshop happened in 2007 (July 30 - August 31), and I made a mistake of guessing the workshop dates wrong, so I bought jetblue tickets for July 23 - August 24 before the announcement (and even before applying and getting accepted), and had to pay a fee to change the dates later. This workshop can be addictive :-) I was so looking forward to it, hoping for another productive month at Stony Brook!

My favorite talks were:
(Sally Dawson) Issues in Collider Physics: Discovery Possibilities at the LHC [MP3: 1, 2] [RealAudio: 1, 2] [WMA: 1, 2]
(Jonathan Heckman) Stringy Standard Models [MP3: 1, 2] [RealAudio: 1, 2] [WMA: 1, 2]
(Ori Gano) Puff Field-theory [MP3: 1, 2] [RealAudio: 1, 2] [WMA: 1, 2]
(David Morrison) Ricci-flow and Membrane Theory [MP3: 1] [RealAudio: 1] [WMA: 1]

In 2008 (June 16 - July 12) , Simons Workshop met in earlier months to avoid Strings 2008 which met in August at CERN. We discussed a lot of string phenomenology and Poincare conjecture. Professor John Morgan gave many lectures. We went to beach every Tuesday and Thursday! Martin threw dinner parties every week. (If not this year, some other year, he did.) There was a party at Avalon Park (which is built to remember Jim Simons' son).

The Simons Workshop of 2009 (July 27 - August 21) was much about Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa and wall crossing. Kevin Costello spoke about A mathematical approach to perturbative quantum field theory [MP3: 1] [RealAudio: 1] [WMA: 1]  

In 2009, we were exposed to some cultural events organized by Nina Douglas (Director of the Art and Science Program at the Simons Center). There was a dance class by Claire Baulieu (Paris Opera Ballet School) and a music concert at Martin's house. We also went to Prof John Morgan's house for a dinner party, where Martin kindly cooked with help of his students, Tudor, and etc.

The current workshop of 2010 (July 26 - August 20) is focussing on wall crossing and AGT again. Starting this year, the workshop is recorded on VIDEO!!
One needs to check out Nathan Seiberg Supercurrents and constraints on SUGRA [Video] 
Andrew Neitzke 4d and 2d-4d wall-crossing [Video] 
Gregory Moore (Rutgers) Topics in wall-crossing [video coming]

It also had a satelite math workshop called FRG.

Let me conclude here for workshop information, and in my next post I will discuss more mundane matters such as eating, hanging out, and sleeping. 
Posted by at 1:17 AM 0 comments Links to this post
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