3pm Tuesday 8th September Carslaw 157 Speaker: Alex Fun Title: A Pieri rule for dual Schur functions The classical Schur functions play an important part in the representation theory of the symmetric group. I will introduce some of the combinatorics involved while working with them, and then discuss a generalisation: the multiparameter Schur functions, which form a basis of the algebra of symmetric functions depending on a sequence of parameters. I am interested in the dual Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, which describe the comultiplication structure on this algebra, amongst other things. If time allows I will talk about a generalised Pieri rule which gives an explicit formula for multiplication of an arbitrary dual Schur function and a dual Schur function associated with a row or column diagram. Speaker: David Easdown Title: Pluses and minuses of reflection Abstract: On the down side, mathematicians are particularly susceptible to the dreaded disease known as The Principle of Reflected Blindedness. On the up side, reflection by a master mathemagician like Stephen Smale can shed new light on sparkling jewels in the crown, such as The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra.