What Mathematics Can Do for You

Yoshikazu Giga is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Tokyo and one of the leading experts in mathematical analysis for nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations. His research interests include analysis on the Navier-Stokes equations, blow-up phenomena for semilinear heat equations, surface evolution equations, and viscosity solutions. His previous books include Surface Evolution Equations (Birkhaeuser 2006) and Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations(with M. Giga and J. Saal, Birkhaeuser 2010). He has been awarded the MSJ Autumn Prize and the Medal with Purple Ribbon.Toshiyuki Kobayashi, a mathematician, was born in 1962. When he was 25, he published the article on the necessary and sufficient condition for Calabi-Markus Phenomenon, which led to a new theory of discontinuous groups beyond the framework of Riemannian geometry. He was invited by Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, for his world first accomplishment. His achievements in later career consists of many new theories of mathematics, such as the theory of discrete decomposable branching laws on infinite-dimensional spaces and visible actions on the unified theory of multiplicity-free representation, to name a few. His academic honors and awards include Spring Prize (the Mathematical Society of Japan), Osaka Science Prize, JSPS Prize (the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), Sackler Distinguished Lecturer (Israel) and Humboldt Research Award (Germany). After working as a professor of Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences (RIMS) in Kyoto University and as a visiting professor of Harvard University, he was appointed to the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences. He is also working as Principal Investigator of Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU), the University of Tokyo.