Prof. Hidehiko Yamabe (1923--1960) was an active and highly
collaborative mathematician in the School of Mathematics at the
University of Minnesota from 1954 to 1960. His sudden illness and
untimely death occured in the same year that he moved to
Northwestern University. His work on topological groups, geometry
and analysis were outstanding contributions to modern
mathematics.
The Yamabe Memorial Lecture has been held for a number of years,
through support from a fund created by Etsuko Yamabe and through
contributions from a number of mathematicians. The lecture has
been held in alternating years at the University of Minnesota and
at Northwestern University. Past speakers have been Neil
Trudinger, Eugenio Calabi, Rick Schoen, Shizuo Kakutani, Craig
Evans, Walter Rudin, Robert Hardt, Katsumi Nomizu, Fred Gehring,
Richard Hamilton, Peter Sarnak, Jeff Cheeger and Shing-Tung
Yau.
This list of distinguished names has established the Yamabe
Memorial Lecture as a landmark in the geography of U.S.
mathematics.
The Yamabe Memorial Symposium is an enhancement of this tradition.
Mathematicians will gather every two years at the University of
Minnesota for a long weekend to hear geometry talks, discuss the
latest research and interact with younger mathematicians. One
goal will be to advance areas of mathematics related to the
interests of Hidehiko Yamabe, which touched in a substantial and
ground-breaking way on several quite different areas of
mathematics, all of which may be roughly described as having
significant geometric aspects.