Speaker: Alexander M Kasprzyk Title: Frolicking with convex bodies Time & Place: 3-4pm, Thursday 13 May, Carslaw 535 Abstract: The aim of this talk is to give a brief introduction to convex bodies: polytopes, polyhedra, and cones. Starting with the most elementary definitions, and motivated in part by constructions from toric geometry, I hope to address: * The dual definitions of a polytope, and how this naturally gives rise to polyhedra; * The concept of finite part and tail cone; * The basic combinatorial properties of polytopes; * Computing the basis of a cone; * Lattice point counting.