En Passant: Mailbox and Tate 100

I lost the key to my office mailbox about a year ago (probably more), and just had it replaced. So today I got to enjoy the bounty of new mail, which consists of:

• A request from the AMS for money, dated Sep 14, 2024,
• A seasons greetings card from the dean of the college, year unknown,
• A brochure from Nasco education selling math toys,
• A poster for the 2025 Arizona Winter Schoo, dated Sep 25, 2024,
• The Fall 2024 University of Chicago library magazine,
• The Fall 2024 Berkeley Mathematics magazine.

I might make another visit in another year! Leafing through these, I see that Martin Olsson is asking me for money, but also that Alex Paulin was voted the best professor at Berkeley for the second year in a row by the Daily Cal:

I actually really liked the answer to the question about his motivations, which resonated with me.

Recently there was a conference to celebrate the legacy of John Tate (who would have turned 100 this year). I was only able to slip in and out of Cambridge for the day to give my talk (with the one evening I was there fortuitously coinciding with the banquet), but I was also very happy that the entire conference was live streamed on video. For those of us who limit our travel, it’s really nice to be able to follow along. As with Alex, I care about doing a good job when giving a talk, although I suspect I am not quite as successful. You can watch my talk here, which is ostensibly about my recent work with Boxer, Gee, and Pilloni, but perhaps with fewer details than any of them would give in such a talk.