Orbita Mathematicae Webinars
We have the pleasure to invite the entire community to attend the next edition of the series of Webinars organized by Orbita Mathematicae, the new official journal of the Mathematical Union of Latin America and the Caribbean (UMALCA), to be held next Wednesday August 27 at 9 am PDT, 10 am México City, 12pm EST and Santiago de Chile, 13 Argentina, Uruguay, Brasilia, 17 UK, 18 Western Europe, etc. Please find the Zoom link below.
August 27, 2025
Speaker: Julia Plavnik
Title: Contragredient Lie algebras in symmetric tensor categories
Abstract: The study of symmetric categories over fields of positive characteristic has gained a lot of attention in the last couple of years. One of the key examples of this theory is the Verlinde categories Ver_p. To deepen our understanding of these categories, we want to study their structure and to construct algebraic structures within them. In this talk, we will start by introducing the Verlinde categories and some of their important properties. We will also give examples of some Lie algebras in symmetric categories in positive characteristic that can be obtained as semisimplification of contragredient Lie algebras in characteristic p. If time allows, we will present some interesting properties that they have. This talk is based on joint work with I. Angiono and G. Sanmarco.
Zoom: https://encurtador.com.br/V7wwi
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@UMALCA
About the speaker
Julia Plavnik is an Argentinian mathematician who got her PhD from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in 2013. She was a postdoctoral researcher in Córdoba and Buenos Aires and at Texas A&M University. Currently, Julia is the Charlotte Ann Griffin Associate Professor of Mathematics at Indiana University in Bloomington, USA, and has a part-time position at VUB. Julia was awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers in 2023-2024. She is supported by an NSF CAREER grant, and she is a principal investigator for the Simons Collaboration on Global Categorical Symmetries. Julia is very active in editorial boards and organizing events all around the globe on different topics. She is also very involved in mentoring students at different stages of their career and postdocs. Julia received the 2022 Outstanding Faculty Mentor/Advocates award by CEWIT at IU.
Julia’s research is on quantum symmetries, with a particular focus on quantum algebra and quantum topology. Her main interest is in tensor, fusion, modular categories, link invariants, and cohomological aspects of non-commutative algebras, such as Hopf algebras. She is very interested in the connections of tensor categories with other areas of mathematics, like mathematical physics and operator algebras, and applications in higher energy physics, condensed matter physics, and quantum information.
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