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Shanks Lecture

The Department of Mathematics Annual Shanks Conference and Lecture focuses each year on a different mathematical specialty. The event attracts international mathematicians to share the latest research and ideas. The Shanks Lecture is the conference’s keynote address, featuring a leading mathematician in the field.

The Shanks Lecture is funded by an endowment from the Shanks family to honor the late Baylis and Olivia Shanks. This year’s Shanks Conference is funded by the Shanks family endowment, as well as by the National Science Foundation and Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science.

2025 Shanks Conference and Lecture

Past Shanks Conferences and Lectures

International Conference on L-Functions and Automorphic Forms
May 13-16, 2024
Shanks Lecturer: Kannan Soundararajan

Conference Website

Approximation Theory and Beyond
May 15-18, 2023
Shanks Lecturer: Wolfgang Dahmen

Conference Website

Noncommutative Geometry and Operator Algebras Spring Institute 2019: Algebra and Geometry Quantized and Quantified
May 3‐9, 2019
Shanks Lecturer: Michael Freedman

Conference Website

7th International Conference on Computational Harmonic Analysis
May 14-18, 2018
Shanks Lecturer: Stephane Mallat

Conference Website

Low-Dimensional Topology and Geometry
May 15-19, 2017
Shanks Lecturer: Ian Agol

Conference Website

International Conference on Evolution Equations
May 16-20, 2016
Shanks Lecturer: Lawrence C. Evans

Conference Website

Recent Advances in Kähler Geometry
May 18-22, 2015
Shanks Lecturer: Shing-Tung Yau

Conference Website

5th International Conference on Computational Harmonic Analysis
May 19-23, 2014
Shanks Lecturer: Jean Bourgain

Conference Website

Topology, Algebra, and Categories in Logic
July 28-August 1, 2013
Shanks Lecturer: Vladimir Voevodsky

Conference Website

International Conference on Cycles in Graphs
May 30-June 2, 2012
Shanks Lecturer: Daniela Kühn

Conference Website

Approximation Theory
May 17-21, 2011
Shanks Lecturer: Charles K. Chui

Conference Website

Optimal Configurations on the Sphere and Other Manifolds
May 17-20, 2010
Shanks Lecturer: Noam Elkies

Conference Website

Mathematical Modeling in the Medical Sciences
Shanks Lecturer: Nicola Bellomo

Conference Website

24th Southeastern Analysis Meeting
Shanks Lecturer: Charles Fefferman

Conference Website

International Conference on Order, Algebra and Logic
Shanks Lecturer: Keith Kearnes

Conference Website

Combinatorial and Geometric Group Theory
Shanks Lecturer: Alex Lubotzky

Conference Website
 

Spring Institute on Noncommutative Geometry and Operator Algebras
Shanks Lecturer:Vaughan
Jones, University of California , Berkeley

Second International Conference on Computational Harmonic Analysis
Shanks Lecturer: Steve Smale, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and University of California , Berkeley (Emeritus)

The Clay Mathematics Institute International Conference and Spring School on Noncommutative Geometry and Applications
Shanks Lecturer: Alain Connes, College de France, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, and Vanderbilt University

International Conference on Modern Algebra
Shanks Lecturer: Efim Zelmanov, Yale University

Conference on Horizons in Combinatorics
Shanks Lecturer: William T. Trotter, Arizona State University

Trends in Approximation Theory
Shanks Lecturer: George G. Lorentz, California State University, Chico

Modern and Classical Analysis
Shanks Lecturer: William Arveson, University of California , Berkeley

International Conference on Non-Positive Curvature in Group Theory, Topology and Geometry
Shanks Lecturer: Andre Haefliger, University of Geneva

International Conference on Mathematical Models in Medical and Health Sciences
Shanks Lecturer: M. Nowak, Oxford University

Conference on Modern Algebra and its Applications
Shanks Lecturer: Cancelled due to illness.

Conference on Graph Theory, Combinatorics and Computing
Shanks Lecturer: Laszlo Lovasz, Yale University

Conference on Geometric Group Theory
Shanks Lecturer: John Stallings, University of California , Berkeley

Conference on Functional Analysis and Operator Theory
Shanks Lecturer: Israel Gelfand, Rutgers University

Conference on Wavelet Theory
Shanks Lecturer: Ingrid Daubechies, AT&T Bell Laboratories

Conference on Analysis, Applied Analysis, and Mathematical Biology
Shanks Lecturer: Irving Segal, MIT

Conference on Algebra and Logic
Shanks Lecturer: Ivan Rival, University of Ottawa

Conference on Analysis, Applied Analysis and Mathematical Biology
Shanks Lecturer: James Yorke, University of Maryland

Conference on Geometry and Topology
Shanks Lecturer: Mary Ellen Rudin, University of Wisconsin

Conference on Graph Theory and Combinatorics
Shanks Lecturer: Ronald Graham, AT&T Bell Laboratories

Conference on Graph Theory and Combinatorics
Shanks Lecturer: Victor Klee, University of Washington

Conference on Geometry and Topology
Shanks Lecturer: R.H. Bing, University of Texas at Austin