Dear All, We are delighted to present the MaPSS Seminar topic of Monday 25th July; please see the abstract below. **This Semester the Seminar will always run on Monday, at 5:00pm in 535A** Following the talk, there will be pizza on offer. Speaker: Michael Twiton (Sydney University) Title: Introduction To The Painleve’ Equations Abstract: We will show that when studying nonlinear ODEs, spontaneous singularities are inevitable. Nonetheless, Painleve’ et al have classified all second order equations where these singularities are minimal in some sense (being poles). If time allows, we will study the first Painleve’ equation, and it’s tritronquee solution in detail. Supervisors, please encourage your students to attend. Thanks, MaPSS Organizers