For the seventh consecutive year, the Fields Institute will open its doors to undergraduate and high school students for one of the most exciting mathematics student events in Toronto: the Student Night of the Fields Medal Symposium (FMS).

This year's FMS will honour the late Maryam Mirzakhani (Fields Medal 2014) and the current and potential impact of her work.

 The Student Night is designed to encourage the interaction between students and a Fields Medallist, to inspire an appreciation of the beauty and scope of mathematics, and to have fun. This year's presentation will be delivered by Professor Diana Davis, who is Visiting Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College. Professor Davis' talk will be followed by networking (with plenty of time for questions/answers) and pizza. More than 150 students typically register for this popular event, which has become a favorite annual tradition.

Diana Davis completed her Ph.D. at Brown University in 2013 under the direction of Richard Schwartz. She was a postdoc at Northwestern University for three years, followed by visiting professorships at Williams College and Swarthmore College. While a graduate student, she won an international award for the video she created to explain her Ph.D. thesis result using colors and dance, which "went viral" in the mathematical community. She has published research on linear flows on flat surfaces, linear flows on polyhedra, billiards in polygons, and billiard trajectories that refract through planar tilings. Davis is also an educational innovator, creating and teaching problem-centered, discussion-based math courses of all levels, and studying their pedagogical effectiveness.

The Fields Medal Symposium comprises three separate events:

• Scientific Program (November 5-9): will honour Maryam Mirzakhani (Fields Medal 2014) and the current and potential impact of her work and is intended for a wide audience, including graduate students, mathematicians in other research areas, and scientists who use mathematics in an important way.
• Public Opening (November 5): features an introduction by Professor Jenya Sapir (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign), and a public lecture by Professor Amie Wilkinson (University of Chicago). 
• Student Night (November 6): includes a lecture by Professor Diana Davis and networking and pizza.

Events will be broadcast live online whenever possible.

FMS News

• The 2016 FMS was featured in The Walrus on August 8, 2018. The article, written by Fields Institute Board of Directors member Siobhan Roberts, profiles Manjul Bhargava’s contributions to the public’s perception of math at this Fields Institute flagship event. Read the full article here.