Pasha Zusmanovich

"Research seminar" ("Vědecký seminář")

For those students who want to get a credit in the current semester for "Vědecký seminář" (6/7ODS1/2, 6/7VES1/2/3/4, 8VSD1/2/3/4, or whatever other fancy abbreviation it might have).

If you already have a supervisor of your diploma/thesis work, the whole thing can be handled either by your supervisor, or by me. If you do not have a supervisor, it is handled by me. If in doubt, consult with your supervisor first. Below are my requirements for getting a credit.

The requirement is to attend 4 talks in any seminar of your choice, per semester. The seminar can be "real", like the department seminar, or seminar at Fuzzy, or one of the seminars at VŠB, or at any other place in the Czech Republic or the whole world.

Or, as it is customary now in our post-coronavirus world, the seminar can be virtual: browse through researchseminars.org for an impressive list of seminars worldwide, or, say, google for "zoom" (most of the online math seminars are delivered via zoom) + keywords of your choice.

The only requirement is that the talk should be in mathematics (all branches of mathematics, pure and applied, will do), research-level, and "live". Talks in applications, history and philosophy of mathematics, and math education are accepted as long they have a non-trivial mathematical content. Just watching recorded talks of past seminars is usually not ok. In exceptional cases (for example, a high relevance to your diploma work), watching a recorded talk may be acceptable. If in doubt, consult with me first.

Some suggestions of talks which might be (partially) accessible for students without prior research experience (or just can be entertaining):

November 28, 2025  How I fell in love with string diagrams
December 8, 2025  Ruben on Rails: How to Steal a World Record from Middle Schoolers
December 9, 2025 A Lie-theoretic trichotomy in Diophantine geometry and arithmetic dynamics
February 5, 2026  Actual Causality: A Survey

For each particular seminar, read carefully instructions for online access, they vary from seminar to seminar. In case of doubt, do not hesitate to write to the organizer(s).

While attending the talk, try to be not merely a passive listener; try to find a connection with the things you already know and/or interested in, try to formulate question(s) to ask at the end of the talk (as any dutiful member of the audience should do).

On each attended talk, you have to report verbally (5-10 minutes conversation with me). For each semester, the deadline is the end of examination period. Do not delay everything till the last moment, and do not report about everything at once, but try to distribute the load over the whole semester.

For any questions, including appointments for reports, please contact me.


Created: Tue Jun 16 2020
Last modified: Tue Nov 25 2025 15:42:08 CET