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Terence Tao

@teorth.bsky.social
10K followers 154 following 64 posts

Mathematician at UCLA. My primary social media account is mathstodon.xyz/@tao . I also have a blog at terrytao.wordpress.com and a home page at www.math.ucla.edu/~tao

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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Announcing the Palomar registry of Lean formalized mathematics: palomar-registry.org . See also my blog announcement at terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/p... and the Lean Zulip channel at leanprover.zulipchat.com#narrow/chann....
palomar-registry.org
Palomar — Lean-verified mathematics
A public registry of Lean-verified mathematical results.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
John Jones, Jen Paulhus, David Roe, Andrew Sutherland, and I have launched the third SAIR challenge, this time aimed at attacking the notorious inverse Galois problem: competition.sair.foundation/competitions... terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/06/16/t... .
competition.sair.foundation
Discoveries | Inverse Galois Problem (IGP24) | SAIR Foundation
Read discoveries for Inverse Galois Problem (IGP24). IGP24, the Inverse Galois Problem in Degree 24. This is a mathematical discovery challenge: we are asking...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Alberto Alfarano, François Charton, Yongzheng Jia, Kristin Lauter, Cathy Li, Emily Wenger, are launching a challenge at SAIR on how efficiently neural networks can perform modular arithmetic: competition.sair.foundation/competitions... terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/06/08/m...
competition.sair.foundation
Modular Arithmetic Challenge | SAIR Foundation
The Modular Arithmetic Challenge asks a deceptively simple question — can a neural network learn to compute (a × b) mod p for integers hundreds of digits long...
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Reposted by Terence Tao
SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Does this change my imaginary Erdos number to a complex number? Click the link to read the full comic on the site! COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/sphere... PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
Title image of the comic "The music of the Spheres" by Dr. Terence Tao and Zach Weinersmith. First 2 panels of the comic "The music of the Spheres." A man is narrating the comic, he is the comic representation of the quoted author, Dr. Terence Tao. He says "When I tell people at parties that I'm a mathematician, there's often an awkward pause in the conversation, or the obligatory..." A tall character next to him chimes in "Oh, I was sooooo bad at Math in school!" In the second panel, the narrator continues "though occasionally, you run into a math and science enthusiast who wants to discuss a recent development they heard in the news..." The narrator looks deeply touched, as a young woman is talking to him, she is saying : "oh my gosh, my friends and I cannot stop talking about reconstructing cryptographic protocols from quantum principles and... Do you want to move this conversation to a whiteboard?"Panels 3 to 6 of the comic "The music of the Spheres." The narrator is putting a reassuring hand on a sad man's shoulder. The narration reads "...or someone who actually had a good experience in their math classes and was somewhat wistful about not pursuing it." The saddened man says "I'll always think of Hadwiger's graph theory conjecture as... the one who got away." In the next panels, the narrator states "those are good moments. But, in general, the public have very little idea what mathematics is, and what mathematicians actually do. Popular culture gives us some caricature portrayals of mathematicians" Panels 7 and 8 of the comic "The music of the Spheres." Both panels show a caricature of a mathematicians from pop culture. The first is a tortured genius, represented by a woman holding a piece of chalk saying "I cannot know love, but by god I *will* know if every polyomino with an area divisible by six can tile and hexagon!" The narration specifies that "torturedness rates among mathematicians are, in fact, average." The second example is the savant with strange mental powers, represented by a man surrounded by equations that obscure his vision. The narration specifies that "if you see equations floating before your eyes, please consult an ophthalmologist."
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
A #cosmicdistanceLadder post on the many ways we project our planet onto a plane. No projection can faithfully reproduce *all* the geometric features of a sphere, so each projection is a compromise; but some projections are still preferred for specific applications. www.instagram.com/p/DVC9SvxkXDs
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Reposted by Terence Tao
Quanta Books @quantabooks.org · 10/02/2026
We’re thrilled to announce that Terence Tao (@teorth.bsky.social)’s SIX MATH ESSENTIALS is available for preorder: us.macmillan.com/books/978037.... A whirlwind tour through six core ideas that have guided mathematicians from antiquity to the frontiers of what we know today. Pubs October 27, 2026.
us.macmillan.com
Six Math Essentials
The “Mozart of mathematics” invites readers on a brief tour of six core ideas—numbers, algebra, geometry, probability, analysis, and dynamics—that ca...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Tanya Klowden and I have uploaded a further sample chapter to our "cosmic distance ladder" book: terrytao.wordpress.com/books/climbi... . See also the blog post terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/c...
terrytao.wordpress.com
Climbing the cosmic distance ladder
Climbing the cosmic distance ladder Tanya Klowden and Terence Tao in preparation This project is based on a public lecture on the cosmic distance ladder that I have given on occasion. Working with …
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
A new paper with Bogdan Georgiev, Javier Gomez-Serrano, and Adam Zsolt Wagner: "Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale" arxiv.org/abs/2511.02864. Further discussion is at terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/m...
arxiv.org
Mathematical exploration and discovery at scale
AlphaEvolve is a generic evolutionary coding agent that combines the generative capabilities of LLMs with automated evaluation in an iterative evolutionary framework that proposes, tests, and refines ...
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Reposted by Terence Tao
Rado Kirov @radokirov.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Calling Bay Area math enthusiasts interested in weekly sessions doing rigorous foundational mathematics the modern way - with computer-verified proofs in Lean. (An experiment in rigorous math education outside traditional academia)
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I started a crowdsourced meta-project to list all the other crowdsourced mathematical research projects that are currently active and seeking participants: mathoverflow.net/questions/50...
mathoverflow.net
List of crowdsourced math projects actively seeking participants
I believe that with the advent of modern online collaboration platforms (such as Github), proof assistant languages (such as Lean), and (potentially) AI tools, there are many emerging opportunities...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
A first proof-of-concept outcome for the erdosproblems.com - OEIS linkage project: with a useful assist from AI, the OEIS was used to locate a proof in the literature for an Erdos problem that was previously marked as "open". mathstodon.xyz/deck/@tao/11...
mathstodon.xyz
Terence Tao (@tao@mathstodon.xyz)
Here is a first proof-of-concept demonstration of an actual outcome for the erdosproblems/OEIS linkage project. There are a number of Erdos problems relating to irrationality of specific series. I ask...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Thomas Bloom and I are launching a crowdsourced project to link up Thomas's erdosproblems.com site with the #OEIS, by systematically calculating the various integer sequences associated with the Erdos problems and crosschecking them against the OEIS database: terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/08/31/a...
erdosproblems.com
Erdős Problems
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Reposted by Terence Tao
SLMath (MSRI) @mathmoves.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
SLMath (MSRI) announces three new research initiatives in Berkeley, California: Call for Proposals for AxIOM month-long programs to begin in Spring 2027, and applications for Summer 2026 PROOF and LATTICE independent research groups. Learn more at www.slmath.org/news-and-eve....
Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath) 
- AxIOM Month-Long Programs: Call for Proposals for Spring 2027 and beyond
- PROOF and LATTICE summer research for teams: Call for Applications for Summer 2026
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
I wrote an op-ed on the world-class STEM research ecosystem in the United States, and how this ecosystem is now under attack on multiple fronts by the current administration: newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar...
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding.
The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
#IPAM (the institute for pure and applied mathematics) is facing a critical shortfall for operating expenses due to an unexpected suspension of NSF funding www.ipam.ucla.edu/news/nsf-fun... . Donations for emergency continuity of operations funding can be made at giving.ucla.edu/Campaign/Donat
ipam.ucla.edu
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
My thoughts on the crucial importance of methodology on self-reported AI performance on mathematics competitions, and my policy on commenting on such reports going forward: mathstodon.xyz/@tao/1148814...
mathstodon.xyz
Terence Tao (@tao@mathstodon.xyz)
It is tempting to view the capability of current AI technology as a singular quantity: either a given task X is within the ability of current tools, or it is not. However, there is in fact a very wid...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
The #SalemPrize for 2025 is now accepting nominations until September 15th. www.ias.edu/math/activit... (I am the chair of the Scientific Committee for the prize.) A bit more information in my blog post on this: terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/07/08/s...
ias.edu
Salem Prize
About
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
A new #CosmicDistanceLadder post to mark the summer solstice, on how astronomical measurements, from the time of Eratosthenes to the modern day, rely on the tireless (and often unsung) efforts of many careful and precise data collectors. www.instagram.com/p/DLG6a_WIWyb
First page of the instagram post
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
I have just launched a "Lean companion" to my textbook "Analysis I": github.com/teorth/estim... . This gives a Lean translation (or paraphrasing) of the various definitions, theorems, and exercises in the textbook into Lean. Further discussion at terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/05/31/a...
github.com
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
A video on an actual formalization task from my Polynomial Freiman Ruzsa (PFR) project, which is sufficiently tricky (and sufficiently far from existing training data of current models) that one still has to largely formalize these proofs by "hand": www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uLX...
youtube.com
Formalizing a proof in Lean by hand
YouTube video by Terence Tao
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
A new #CosmicDistanceLadder post on how the distance ladder can also be used to measure cosmic durations, as well as cosmic distances. www.instagram.com/p/DJ2ra2soG4j
The first page of the instagram post on how we measure cosmological durations.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
A third video in my occasional series on #Lean4 formalization workflows, this time focusing on how relying extensively on #GitHubCopilot fares against standard "epsilon delta" type problems in analysis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1ix...
youtube.com
Formalizing a proof in Lean using Github Copilot only
YouTube video by Terence Tao
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
A followup to my previous video, in which I now see how #Claude and #o4mini do at formalizing a slightly different proof of the same algebraic implication, after being given the initial informal and formal proofs as reference. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZr5...
youtube.com
Formalizing a proof in Lean using Claude and o4
YouTube video by Terence Tao
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
As an experiment, I tried to use automated tools to formalize (in as "mindless" a fashion as possible) a one-page human written proof into Lean. You can watch the results here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyR...
youtube.com
Formalizing a proof in Lean using Github copilot and canonical
YouTube video by Terence Tao
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
DARPA's "Exponentiating mathematics" (expMath) program, which is launching a challenge to develop and evaluate "AI collaborators" for assist in decomposing and formalizing informal mathematical proofs, is now taking short abstract proposal submissions: sam.gov/opp/869c8d73...
sam.gov
SAM.gov
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
After 200 days, we finally have 100% completion on the primary goal of the Equational Theories Project to formally resolve >22 million implications between 4694 equational laws, using modern proof assistants, collaboration platforms, and automated theorem provers. teorth.github.io/equational_t...
The dashboard of the project reports a 100.00% completion rate.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
A new #CosmicDistanceLadder post, on intriguing hints from the DESI survey data that suggests that the cosmological constant (aka "dark energy) might not, in fact, be constant after all. www.instagram.com/p/DIP0yy5oDUu
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
A new #CosmicDistanceLadder post on why lunar and solar eclipses tend to come in pairs (for instance, the solar eclipse next week is paired with the lunar eclipse from last week). www.instagram.com/p/DHkS3EcA40L
First page of the instagram post
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Reposted by Terence Tao
Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 21/03/2025
Cosmic Distance Calibration xkcd.com/3066
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
A new #CosmicDistanceLadder post, on how the recent lunar eclipse from the vantage point of the Earth becomes a solar eclipse from the vantage point of the Moon: www.instagram.com/p/DHR1tuWonDR/
First page of the instagram post
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Lunar eclipses, such as the one yesterday, were one of the earliest pieces of scientific evidence that the Earth was basically a round sphere, already known to Aristotle: regardless of the position of the eclipse in the light sky, the shadow of the Earth on the Moon was always circular.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
A new post on my #CosmicDistanceLadder Instagram with Tanya Klowden on the parallels (but also differences) between ancient Greek and ancient Indian astronomy. www.instagram.com/p/DGzJs02AbBA
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
While serving on PCAST we interacted with this group. They did great work providing efficient digital services to the federal government and cited them as an excellent model for other potential service needs such as science communication: bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/pcast/briefi...
bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov
PCAST Releases Letter on Advancing Public Engagement with the Sciences | PCAST | The White House
Today, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released recommendations to promote the development of public policies that are informed by scientific understandings and c...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I am happy to announce that the Kakeya set conjecture, one of the most sought after open problems in geometric measure theory, has now been proven (in three dimensions) by Hong Wang and Joshua Zahl! arxiv.org/abs/2502.17655 I discuss some ideas of the proof at terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/02/25/t...
arxiv.org
Volume estimates for unions of convex sets, and the Kakeya set conjecture in three dimensions
We study sets of $δ$ tubes in $\mathbb{R}^3$, with the property that not too many tubes can be contained inside a common convex set $V$. We show that the union of tubes from such a set must have almos...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
I wrote a blog post on how a piece of pure mathematics - the development of the landscape function in PDE - played a part in realizing noticeable savings in household energy bills due to improved LED lighting technology: terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/02/23/c...
terrytao.wordpress.com
Closing the “green gap”: from the mathematics of the landscape function to lower electricity costs for households
I recently returned from the 2025 Annual Meeting of the “Localization of Waves” collaboration (supported by the Simons Foundation, with additional related support from the NSF), where I…
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
This was a very enjoyable collaboration with @3blue1brown.bsky.social . Tanya Klowden and I are continuing to work on developing this material into a popular science book; we will share our progress on our Instagram at www.instagram.com/cosmic_dista...
instagram.com
Login • Instagram
Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
The American Mathematical Society has also started a page to coordinate support for professional mathematics, so far focusing on executive orders impacting the National Science Foundation: www.ams.org/government/g...
ams.org
AMS :: Take Action
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
A letter of support for the NIH funding of biomedical research, and the damage wrought by imposing severe caps on indirect costs: docs.google.com/forms/d/1Agz...
docs.google.com
Protect NIH Research: Advocate for Full Funding
As researchers representing universities across the country, the last few weeks have been filled with uncertainty. As you are aware, the Trump administration’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) prop...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Part one of a collaboration with @3blue1brown.bsky.social on presenting the mathematics of the cosmic distance ladder in an accessible fashion.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
#DARPA just announced a forthcoming program entitled "Exponentiating Mathematics", focusing on challenges to auto-formalization (and auto-decomposition of large proofs into small lemmas). The preliminary announcement (still short on many details) can be found at sam.gov/opp/4def3c13...
sam.gov
SAM.gov
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
The "Lean for Mathematicians" workshop, aimed at training graduate students and postdocs in the use of the Lean proof assistant language for mathematics, runs June 16-27 2025 and is currently taking applications. sites.google.com/view/simonsl...
sites.google.com
Lean for Mathematicians 2025
Workshop Information Application Form
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Launching the Analytic Number Theory Exponent Database (ANTEDB) at github.com/teorth/expdb to systematically collect known results in the literature on such exponents. More info (and a companion paper) at terrytao.wordpress.com/2025/01/28/n...
github.com
GitHub - teorth/expdb: Exponent pair database
Exponent pair database. Contribute to teorth/expdb development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
A brief update on my #CosmicDistanceLadder instagram with Tanya on the fires that have affected (one of our) home cities. (But the sky is much, much bluer today.) www.instagram.com/p/DEyx7o_OFLz
A red sky in Los Angeles last week.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
A #CosmicDistanceLadder on how Christmas in Australia is inverted in many ways from Christmas in the Northern hemisphere, and how the parallax differences were once important in climbing that distance ladder. www.instagram.com/p/DEExnvvRkCQ
Captain Cook's Endeavour makes landfall to observe the transit of Venus in the southern hemisphere.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
A new #CosmicDistanceLadder post on the winter/summer solstice in the Northern/Southern hemisphere yesterday: www.instagram.com/p/DD1c47nIKJ2 (One can also refer to this solstice as the Southern solstice - the time of year when the Sun is at its southernmost, regardless where one is on the Earth.)
A “Clonehenge” or replica of Stonehenge at the winter solstice on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
I wrote a blog post on how quaternions can be used to derive the equations of spherical geometry, as well as the sunrise equation relating the time of sunrise or sunset to one's latitude and the declination of the Sun. terrytao.wordpress.com/2024/12/19/q...
terrytao.wordpress.com
Quaternions and spherical trigonometry
Hamilton’s quaternion number system $latex {\mathbb{H}}&fg=000000$ is a non-commutative extension of the complex numbers, consisting of numbers of the form $latex {t + xi + yj + zk}&f…
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
My #math department at #UCLA is now advertising for an additional tenure-track assistant professor position as part of UCLA's HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) initiative: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10045 . The deadline for applications is Jan 20, 2025.
recruit.apo.ucla.edu
Tenure Track Assistant Professor Position with HSI Initiative
University of California, Los Angeles is hiring. Apply now!
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
#PCAST (the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, on which I currently serve) has released its report on groundwater resilience, and how the federal government can assist state, local, and tribal management efforts. www.whitehouse.gov/pcast/briefi...
whitehouse.gov
PCAST Releases Report on Strengthening America’s Groundwater Resilience | PCAST | The White House
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has released a new report addressing America’s groundwater resources. Groundwater is central to the health, security, and economic...
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Timothy Gowers @wtgowers.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
AIMO, the Artificial Intelligence Mathematical Olympiad, is in its second year, with a new and harder set of problems. It has just awarded a prize of $20,000 to Md Boktiar Mahbub Murad for being the first person to write a program that solves 20/50 of the problems and make it freely available.
aimoprize.com
Early Sharing Prize Awarded | AIMO Prize
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