Duality: When Things Are Equal But Opposite

Dr Rose Wagstaffe is coming to the University of Liverpool on Wednesday 21 October for a talk called Duality: When Things Are Equal But Opposite. It's running from 5 pm to 6 pm in Lecture Theatre C, inside the Central Teaching Hub (building 221, square F7, L69 7ZD).

The talk is all about duality in mathematics, a concept from category theory that gives us a language for when things are opposite. It's the kind of idea that lets you see how two objects that look completely different can actually be equivalent—or equivalent with a twist, which Wagstaffe calls 'twisted equality'. The real power of it is how it can link together areas of mathematics that don't seem to have anything in common.

Wagstaffe is a Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of Manchester, and her research is in mathematical logic, including model theory and its connections with algebra and category theory. Duality isn't just a topic she's talking about for the night; it's something she studied during her PhD, so she's speaking from her own background rather than just introducing a concept. The session is organised by the Liverpool Mathematical Society together with the University of Liverpool.

It's aimed at anyone aged 16 or over with an interest in maths, from Year 11 upwards, so you don't need to be a mathematician to get your head around it. One thing to keep in mind: it's a face-to-face campus talk with no live stream or recording, so if you want to hear it, you'll need to be there in person. It runs from 5 pm to 6 pm on Wednesday 21 October at the Central Teaching Hub.