Old problems in a new context

Ivan Martino received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Stockholm University in 2014. Thanks to a grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, he will hold a postdoctoral position with Professor Zinovy Reichstein at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. 

Ivan Martino’s project focuses on concepts inspired by an old and important problem in algebraic geometry, which is a branch of mathematics with roots in ancient Greece. Algebraic geometry was first developed as a study of the algebraic and geometric properties of solutions to polynomial equations. 

The problems that Ivan Martino is planning to address are linked to the unsolved Noether’s problem, which was formulated in 1913 by the German mathematician Emmy Noether. Noether’s initial motivation was her interest in another unsolved question, the inverse Galois problem that was first posed in the 19th century. Since they were formulated, the initial versions of the two problems have been considerably developed and expanded, and their extended versions now constitute an area of flourishing mathematical research.

The goal of Ivan Martino’s project is to develop new methods to refine the understanding of mathematical concepts inspired by the Noether problem. The subject of his study lies within the realm of algebraic geometry, but the methods he will use also come from other branches of mathematics, primarily from combinatorics.