The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 91

Early Days and Near Mishaps
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the order of, “I do not wish to be disagreeable, but I think
combinatorics will play an increasing role, and the resolution
of P vs. NP will be very important.” It was good that the
young and the old were seated far apart.
The lectures were held in the main auditorium at the Royal
Ontario Museum, a beautiful venue, but their audio-visual
people had never encountered mathematicians. Even in 2000
it was quite challenging to insist on speakers using slides,
and an overhead projector had to be provided. It did
not go well in some instances, as the image was distorted.
Being mathematicians and understanding something about
geometry, speakers tried to solve this problem themselves by
angling the projector. Fields Medallist Alain Connes took this
most seriously and had the projector at such a rakish angle
that his slides started slipping off the projector. Not to be
deterred, he produced large franc coins from his pockets in
order to hold his slides in place and then proceeded.
The Fields Tenth Anniversary was also a splendid event,
and, looking back on it now, I can see that the line-up of
speakers was quite a testament to the young Institute. Some
of the highlights included Marty Golubitsky explaining how he
solved a problem in dynamical systems by watching a rodeo
in Houston, and Bill Pulleyblank, at the meeting banquet,
teaching everyone to say “Howyadoin” like a New Yorker
before giving a full-throated defense of mathematical research
in industry.
On a sad note, I also remember 9/11 from the perspective
of someone at Fields on that day. Our program in numerical
analysis had just started and a workshop was underway when
news came of the events in New York. There was a television in
the building that we used on occasion, and we set it up so that
people could follow the news. One unknown, among many,
was the location of one of the main speakers, Gene Golub.
Although Golub was from Stanford, he was making his way to