Speaker: Bernhard KellerVenue: Lecture Hall 210, Haina Complex Building 2, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Cluster algebras are certain commutative algebras invented by Fomin-Zelevinsky around the year 2000. Among them, we find the homogeneous coordinate algebras of Grassmannians, flag varieties and many other varieties of importance in representation theory and geometry. Fomin-Zelevinsky's motivations came from Lie theory and more precisely from the study of Lusztig's (dual) canonical bases which such algebras possess and from his related theory of total positivity. In this talk. we will briefly review the history of cluster algebras and their links to many other subjects including Lie theory, discrete dynamical systems, quiver representations, Donaldson-Thomas theory, mirror symmetry and symplectic topology.

Speaker: Seth DavisVenue: Lecture Hall 245, School of Life Sciences, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Seth Davis earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Warwick, UK, and later served as a postdoc and independent PI at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ), Germany. He is currently a Professor and Head of the Department of Plant Biology at the University of York, UK. He also serves as an editor for journals such as Molecular Plant and Plant Cell & Environment. His main research interests include: the effects of light/dark changes and cold/heat changes on the plant circadian clock, the regulation of plant metabolism by the circadian clock, and the connections between circadian clocks in different plant species. He has published over 120 papers in internationally renowned academic journals such as Science, Nature, and The Plant Cell, with an H-index greater than 50.

Speaker: Professor Peter NaumannVenue: Room E-250, College of Animal Sciences, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Professor Peter Neumann is a world-renowned expert in bee health, based at the University of Bern's Institute of Bee Health in Switzerland. His research is dedicated to understanding the challenges facing honey bees and other pollinators, with a particular focus on parasites, pathogens, pesticides, and the complex factors behind colony losses. He is a member of European Scientific Academy since 2014. A cornerstone of Professor Neumann's legacy is his pivotal role in the creation and development of COLOSS (Prevention of Honey Bee COLony LOSSes). Recognizing the need for a coordinated, international response to widespread bee declines, he was instrumental in founding this global non-profit network. Under his guidance as a founding president and active member, COLOSS has grown into a vital collaborative body, uniting thousands of researchers and professionals from over 120 countries. The organization is renowned for its standardized monitoring of bee health and large-scale, collaborative research initiatives that generate critical insights into the causes of colony mortality.

Speaker: Professor Bernhard KellerVenue: Lecture Hall 202, Haina Complex Building 2, Zijingang CampusAbstract: For a Dynkin quiver Q, the triprojective (dg) algebra associated with Q is glued together from three copies of the corresponding preprojective (dg) algebra. The category of Gorenstein projective dg modules over the triprojective dg algebra is expected to categorify Goncharov-Shen's cluster variety of triples of flags of the type of Q and this is our main motivation for considering them.

Speaker: Roy ChuaVenue: Room A1001, School of Management, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Existing research on AI cultural biases predominantly focuses on Western models, overlooking critical gaps in non-Western models. We conduct a comparative analysis of AI models – ChatGPT (U.S. developed) and ErnieBot (China developed) – from different cultures to investigate how corresponding cultural biases manifest in their outputs. Additionally, we examine how cultural alignment between human users and AI models impacts their collaborative creative performance and the underlying psychological mechanisms. Through a series of experiments and field research, our findings show that AI models developed in different cultural contexts exhibit distinct cultural perspectives and worldviews. Furthermore, when human users' and AI models' cultural backgrounds align, human users demonstrate increased usefulness – but not novelty – in creative solutions for local (but not global) tasks, driven by an enhanced psychological state of flow. This finding highlights the importance of cultural alignment between human users and AI models, particularly during creative collaborations. We discuss the implications of cultural biases in AI, emphasizing the need for cross-cultural AI literacy to improve user interactions and support more effective global AI integration.

Speaker: Prof. Athanasios TsanasVenue: Ground Floor Lecture Room, CHOW YEI CHING Building, Yuquan CampusAbstract: Monitoring of chronic condition trajectories typically requires the patients’ physical presence in the clinic and regular thorough physical examination by clinical experts to assess symptom severity and the effect of interventions. In practice, people with chronic conditions only meet their clinical care teams sparsely in some cases as often as once every 1-2 years. In this talk, I will highlight how capitalizing on digital technologies can provide access to diverse multimodal data, which can be mined to provide clinically useful information. I will demonstrate how we have developed clinical decision support tools to facilitate accurate, longitudinal, and scalable monitoring, drawing on a range of examples from my research work in Parkinson’s, disease, mental disorders, and endometriosis.

Speaker: Henan ChengVenue: Room 222, College of Education, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Dr. Henan Cheng is the executive director of the Center on Chinese Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has also been an adjunct professor in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College since 2012. Her primary research interests include international and comparative education, educational development and equity issues in China, especially issues related to education of ethnic minorities and children of migrants. Dr. Cheng’s publications on education of migrant children have been cited in national and international media outlets including Time Magazine, Huffington Post, Hechinger Report, and Reference News.

Speaker: Zhenhao JinVenue: Lecture Hall 112, International College, Zijingang CampusAbstract: This lecture is designed to support international students navigating the challenges of adjusting to a new academic and cultural environment. It will introduce effective coping strategies and practical self-regulation techniques to promote mental well-being. Attendees will gain valuable insights to help them thrive during their transition and beyond.

Speaker: Michael DustinVenue: Ground Floor Lecture Room, Research Building, School of Medicine, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Professor Michael L. Dustin is a world-leading immunologist and cell biologist whose pioneering work has transformed our understanding of T cell activation and immune cell communication. He developed fluorescence microscopy and introduced supported lipid bilayers as surrogate antigen-presenting cells, enabling quantitative visualization of receptor-ligand interactions and the dynamic architecture of immunological synapses. At New York University, he established a groundbreaking research program in the mechanobiology of the immunological synapse. Now at the University of Oxford, his laboratory investigates the nanoscale organization of immunological synapses, providing a fundamental framework for their supramolecular assemblies. Among his landmark discoveries are supramolecular attack particles that mediate immune cell cytotoxicity. In this talk, Professor Dustin will discuss new insights into T cell engager potency and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) safety, highlighting how cytotoxic immunological synapses integrate signals to deliver supramolecular attack particles. He will also present updates on checkpoint-like immune evasion by pathogens and emerging mechanisms through which tumours attenuate immune responses or induce tolerant, non-responsive states.