A number of the world's most prominent scientists and mathematicians, among them Nobel Prize and Field Medal winners, are in Lebanon to attend an international conference on mathematics and physics. Entitled "The Mathematical Sciences After the year 2000: A Prospective View," the conference, which opens Monday, coincides with the official launching of AUB's Center for Advanced Mathematical Sciences.
Nobel Prize winners Murray Gell-Mann (1969) and T.D. Lee (1957), as well as Sir Michael Atiyah, President of the Royal Society and the Master of Trinity College Cambridge, are three of the over 20 international experts speaking during the four-day conference being held at both AUB and Al-Bustan Hotel in Beit Mery.
According to Dr. Nicolas Khuri, professor at Rockefeller University in New York and an AUB trustee since 1969, the conference has been purposely designed to show people "what can come out of mathematics. "The different speakers coming from a variety of backgrounds will show just a sample of the role of mathematics to everyday life," he said.
Referring to the opening of the center, whose main objective is to promote and encourage undergraduate and graduate research and education at the AUB and other universities in Lebanon and the region, it is about 25 years late, said Dr. Khuri, who is also the chairman of AUB's Academic Affairs Committee. The problems that led to the delay, he noted, predated the civil war and included a financial crisis at the university which prevented many things from happening, including the establishment of such a center. But, he stressed, for AUB to survive in the future, it has to become a first-rate university.
"Today we're looking to the future and this center comes forward for three reasons, namely scientific, financial and the existence of manpower," Dr. Khuri said. On the scientific level, he explained, the computer revolution has progressed at such a tremendous rate that problems which before were beyond the scope of application by mathematicians can now be handled. Financially, he continued, the center is viable because the equipment is basic and affordable, unlike for other areas, such as micro-biology, which would require an expensive laboratory. The most important factor, according to Dr. Khuri, is that there are a number of well-trained mathematicians in Lebanon. "For some reason, the Lebanese like math and the mathematical sciences and there's a pool of talented people here," he said.
Although the center is partly paid for and located at AUB, Mr. Khuri stressed that it was a national facility. "It will provide a place for faculty to work, which includes faculty from the Lebanese American University and the Lebanese University," he said, adding that the center "has also enabled us to attract four excellent people who are at the prime of their careers and are active in research."
Consequently, the center and its four experts ­ one each from England and Siwtz and two from the U.S. ­ will help put mathematical sciences at AUB on the international map. "And out of the pool of visitors to the center in the future, we may have the opportunity to take on new faculty who will already be familiar with the area," said Dr. Khuri. He added that although there may be more pressing needs, it was best to think long-term. "We have to have foresight," he said. "A few of the resources we have must be invested in the future. Otherwise we'll always be behind."