Prof Joel Hass (University of California, Davis) is presenting a public lecture on "Comparing shapes of genus zero". This talk is aimed at a general scientific audience. All are welcome to attend.

Abstract: Almost everything we encounter in our 3-dimensional world is a surface - the outside of a solid object. Moreover there is an explosive increase in the availability of digitized representations of surfaces in 3D. Comparing the shapes of surfaces is, not surprisingly, a fundamental problem in both theoretical and applied mathematics. Facial recognition, drug design and much of radiology, for example, are concerned with comparing and aligning surfaces. Deep mathematical results are now being used to study objects such as bones, brain cortices, proteins and biomolecules by studying their surface geometry. This talk will discuss recent joint work with Patrice Koehl that introduces a new way to align and compare surfaces, and how well it performs relative to other methods and to human experts.

Lunchtime fireside chat with Omar Sultan, Managing Partner of Sultan Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Hawaii, USA. Get your startup questions answered.

On Friday, February 16, the sixth talk of the OIST Science Talk Series featuring OIST scientists from Okinawa was held at Junku-do Book Store in Naha. The speaker this time was Dr. Naoyuki Taira from the Immune Signal Unit.  He will introduce how he becam

On Friday January 19th, the forth talk of the OIST Science Talk Series featuring OIST scientists from Okinawa will be held. The speaker this time is Dr. Hidehito Adaniya from the Shintake Unit. 
The series will be continued until February 2018, every third Friday night from 18:30-19:30 at Junku-do Book Store in Naha (1-19-29 Makishi, Naha-city). 
*The talk is in Japanese only.

Dr. Milind V Purohit is Professor and Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA. 

On Friday December 15th, the forth talk of the OIST Science Talk Series featuring OIST scientists from Okinawa will be held. The speaker this time is Dr. Shizuka Shimabukuro from the Tripp Unit. 
The series will be continued until February 2018, every third Friday night from 18:30-19:30 at Junku-do Book Store in Naha (1-19-29 Makishi, Naha-city). 
*The talk is in Japanese only.

要予約。言語：日本語（英通訳有り）。対象者：日本の教育課程に興味がある方、保護者、教員、等。

Registration required. Language: Japanese with English interpretation. Audience: People interested in Japanese school education system, parents, and teachers.

Lecturer: Shun Shirai is a Director in charge of Curriculum Planning Office, School curriculum Division, Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau, MEXT