Chris Spencer's Homepage

...work in progress...

About Me

I am a postgraduate research student in the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, having joined in 2008. Currently I am in the first year of my PhD and my supervisors are Prof. Iain Gordon and Prof. Tom Lenagan .
Before coming to Edinburgh I was an undergraduate at King's College in Cambridge . I also did Part III (aka CASM) there.

Research Interests

My research interests are in Algebra and Representation Theory. My particular interests vary regularly, but some things I have consistently enjoyed are:

Lie Theory
D-Modules
Homological Algebra
Commutative Algebra
Algebraic Geometry and its links with Representation Theory

I might tell you more about these things once I have a clue what I am talking about.

Conferences and Workshops

20th-22nd April 2009: Sir Michael Atiyah's biryhday conference (his 80th birthday!), appropriately named Geometry and Physics: Atiyah80 organised by the ICMS here in Edinburgh.
13th-18th April 2009: A 6-day workshop in Glasgow on Categorification and Geometrisation from Representation Theory organised by the ICMS as part of the programme on Algebraic Lie Theory of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
23rd-27th March 2009: A one week workshop on Algebraic Lie Structures with Origins in Physics
12th-23rd January 2009: Two week Instructional Workshop as part of the programme on Algebraic Lie Theory, held at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge
10th-13th December: A workshop on Infinite Group Theory held here in Edinburgh
27th-29th November 2008: Jacques Alev's 60th Birthday conference at the Unversity of Reims
15th-19th September 2008: A one week LMS/EPSRC funded course on Algebraic groups and related topics held at the University of Birmingham
Various ARTIN meetings (in Aberdeen and Manchester so far).

Teaching

This year I am tutoring Prof. Lenagan's fourth-year course "Jewels of Algebra". If you are a student attending this course, the website is here. You'll need your password and matriculation number. Last semester the group theory section of the course was finished and it is now moving on to Galois Theory, which should be great fun.
My tutorials take place on Mondays at 1pm in the JCMB.

Beyond Part III

Beyond Part III is a conference for young researchers in the mathematical sciences taking place in Cambridge this April. (Despite the name it is of course possible to attend without having done Part III in Cambridge!)
If you are interested in attending or would like to find out more, have a look at the excellent Beyond Part III website or email me. To find out how to reach me via email, scroll down the page.

Contact

The easiest way to contact me is via email: C [dot] C [dot] Spencer [at] sms [dot] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk
(If you don't understand what this means, you can find my email address on the department website here or the graduate school website here).
I am prone to making spelling mistakes, so if you find any please let me know.

Normal mail can be sent to:

C.C.Spencer
School of Mathematics
University of Edinburgh
5404 James Clerk Maxwell Building
King's Buildings
Mayfield Road
Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ
UK