Speaker: Peter Buser
Title: The 100th Anniversary of the Uniformization Theorem.
Affiliation: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Date: Friday, January 12, 2007.
Place and Time: Room 101 - Love Building, 3:35-4:30 pm.
Refreshments: Room 204 - Love Building, 3:00 pm.

Abstract. A hundred years ago, Koebe and Poincaré proved, independently of each other, the famous Uniformization Theorem saying that for any Riemann surface the universal covering is conformally equivalent to either the sphere, the complex plane or the unit disk.

The lecture will scan the quite exciting history of this theorem, including famous names: Riemann, Hilbert, Klein, Poincaré, Ahlfors and many others.

The lecture is for a general audience.