Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
MIT Professor George Lusztig (2014 Shaw Prize) discusses his career in mathematics with University of Oxford Mathematician Dr Tom Crawford. Recorded at the 2023 Hong Kong Laureate Forum.
*CORRECTION: the image at 8:55 is Serge Lang, when George is in fact talking about Jean-Pierre Serre.
George begins with his early career in Romania, before a chance meeting with Isadore Singer - and the invitation to Oxford that followed - changed his life. Whilst there, George worked with Singer and Michael Atiyah, following the latter to Princeton as his graduate student.
Full list of publications by George Lusztig: https://math.mit.edu/~gyuri/pub.html
Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem: Atiyah, Michael F.; Singer, Isadore M. (1963), "The Index of Elliptic Operators on Compact Manifolds", Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 69 (3): 422–433, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1963-10957-X
2014 Shaw Prize in Mathematics: shawprize.org/laureates/2014-mathematical-sciences
2014 Shaw Prize video: youtube.com/watch?v=UE_jQs536Zk
Links to Tom's other interviews with Laureates in Maths and Computer Science.
Robert Langlands: youtube.com/watch?v=XNh0cd09hxQ
Whitfield Diffie: youtube.com/watch?v=UaanzpCkc8c
Lesley Lamport: youtube.com/watch?v=DPVvReKyhmw
Alessio Figalli: youtube.com/watch?v=Oob466Ia9f4
Martin Hairer: youtube.com/watch?v=Z6XP3n-Sjiw
Michael Atiyah: youtube.com/watch?v=alujy8SVIDM
Daniel Spielman: youtu.be/SVfabuPRkYg
Efim Zlemanov: youtube.com/watch?v=Nz3_RzZzuO8
Steven Balbus: youtu.be/W1teZXKqdCw
Noga Alon: youtu.be/yaFoaeuhlos
Produced by Dr Tom Crawford at the University of Oxford. Tom is Public Engagement Lead at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education: conted.ox.ac.uk
All video footage is shown under a fair use policy for educational purposes via a Creative Commons licence. The copyright remains the property of the owner of the footage.
For more maths content check out Tom's website tomrocksmaths.com
You can also follow Tom on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @tomrocksmaths.
facebook.com/tomrocksmaths
twitter.com/tomrocksmaths
instagram.com/tomrocksmaths
Get your Tom Rocks Maths merchandise here: beautifulequation.com/collections/tom-rocks-maths
With thanks to
George Lusztig
Hong Kong Laureate Forum
The Shaw Prize
George M. Benson: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isadore_Singer_1977_(re-scanned_1,_bordered).jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Serge_Lang#/media/File:Serge_Lang,_Aug_1977_(de-bordered).jpg
MIT Professor George Lusztig (2014 Shaw Prize) discusses his career in mathematics with University of Oxford Mathematician Dr Tom Crawford. Recorded at the 2023 Hong Kong Laureate Forum.
*CORRECTION: the image at 8:55 is Serge Lang, when George is in fact talking about Jean-Pierre Serre.
George begins with his early career in Romania, before a chance meeting with Isadore Singer - and the invitation to Oxford that followed - changed his life. Whilst there, George worked with Singer and Michael Atiyah, following the latter to Princeton as his graduate student.
Full list of publications by George Lusztig: https://math.mit.edu/~gyuri/pub.html
Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem: Atiyah, Michael F.; Singer, Isadore M. (1963), "The Index of Elliptic Operators on Compact Manifolds", Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 69 (3): 422–433, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1963-10957-X
2014 Shaw Prize in Mathematics: shawprize.org/laureates/2014-mathematical-sciences
2014 Shaw Prize video: youtube.com/watch?v=UE_jQs536Zk
Links to Tom's other interviews with Laureates in Maths and Computer Science.
Robert Langlands: youtube.com/watch?v=XNh0cd09hxQ
Whitfield Diffie: youtube.com/watch?v=UaanzpCkc8c
Lesley Lamport: youtube.com/watch?v=DPVvReKyhmw
Alessio Figalli: youtube.com/watch?v=Oob466Ia9f4
Martin Hairer: youtube.com/watch?v=Z6XP3n-Sjiw
Michael Atiyah: youtube.com/watch?v=alujy8SVIDM
Daniel Spielman: youtu.be/SVfabuPRkYg
Efim Zlemanov: youtube.com/watch?v=Nz3_RzZzuO8
Steven Balbus: youtu.be/W1teZXKqdCw
Noga Alon: youtu.be/yaFoaeuhlos
Produced by Dr Tom Crawford at the University of Oxford. Tom is Public Engagement Lead at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education: conted.ox.ac.uk
All video footage is shown under a fair use policy for educational purposes via a Creative Commons licence. The copyright remains the property of the owner of the footage.
For more maths content check out Tom's website tomrocksmaths.com
You can also follow Tom on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @tomrocksmaths.
facebook.com/tomrocksmaths
twitter.com/tomrocksmaths
instagram.com/tomrocksmaths
Get your Tom Rocks Maths merchandise here: beautifulequation.com/collections/tom-rocks-maths
With thanks to
George Lusztig
Hong Kong Laureate Forum
The Shaw Prize
George M. Benson: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isadore_Singer_1977_(re-scanned_1,_bordered).jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Serge_Lang#/media/File:Serge_Lang,_Aug_1977_(de-bordered).jpg
