Giordano Favi
EPFL SB SMA-GE
MA A2 365 (Bâtiment MA)
Station 8
1015 Lausanne
Web site: Web site: https://sma.epfl.ch/
Web site: Web site: https://sma.epfl.ch/
Mission
My vision in teaching mathematics is to provide simple explanations for complex concepts. I also like to explain mathematical theories using analogy and comparison with everydayCurrent work
My current work at EPFL is fully dedicated to teaching mathematics for 1st year students.It is very important to give satisfactory introductory courses to first year students: future engineers need solid basis in mathematics and that is the purpose of my courses.
I also share with passion my vision of mathematics which is a beautiful tool for expressing elaborate constructions.
Professional course
Scientific Collaborator
SMA
EPFL
September 2014 -- today
Lecturer
Cours Euler
EPFL
August 2012 -- August 2014
Freelance Mathematician
February 2011 -- July 2012
Lecturer
MATHGEOM
EPFL
September 2010 -- January 2011
Scientific Collaborator
Mathematisches Institut
Universität Basel
April 2006 -- August 2010
Lecturer
DMA - EGG
EPFL
September 2009 -- February 2010
Guest researcher
Mathematisches Institut
Universität Bielefeld
January 2006 -- March 2006
Guest researcher
Mathematics section
Forschungsinstitut Zürich
November 2005 -- December 2005
Post-doc
Mathematics Department
ETHZ
April 2005 -- October 2005
Post-doc
Mathematisches Institut
Universität Basel
October 2004 -- March 2005
Post-doc
Département de Mathématiques
EPFL
January 2004 -- September 2004
Doctoral Assistant
Institut de Mathématiques
Université de Lausanne
September 1998 -- December 2003
Education
Ph.D
Mathematics
Universite de Lausanne
2003
Master
Mathematics
Universite de Lausanne
1999
Bachelor
Mathematics
Universite de Lausanne
1998
Publications
Selected publications
Paul Balmer, Giordano Favi Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (3), 102, no.6 (2011), 1161-1185 |
Generalized tensor idempotents and the Telescope Conjecture. |
Giordano Favi, Mathieu Florence Journal of Algebra, Volume 319, (2008), 3885-3900. |
Tori and essential dimension. |
Paul Balmer, Giordano Favi Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Volume 58, (2007), 415-441 |
Gluing techniques in triangular geometry. |
Grégory Berhuy, Giordano Favi Journal of Algebra, Volume 278, (2004), 199-216. |
Essential dimension of cubics. |
Grégory Berhuy, Giordano Favi Documenta Math. Vol. 8 (2003), 279-330 |
Essential dimension: A functorial point of view (After A. Merkurjev). |
Research
Category Theory
My main research interest is in Category Theory and its generalizations to higher dimensions. This branch of mathematics has the potential to be applied to all kind of science. It even has an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:"Category theory has come to occupy a central position in contemporary mathematics and theoretical computer science, and is also applied to mathematical physics. Roughly, it is a general mathematical theory of structures and of systems of structures. As category theory is still evolving, its functions are correspondingly developing, expanding and multiplying. At minimum, it is a powerful language, or conceptual framework, allowing us to see the universal components of a family of structures of a given kind, and how structures of different kinds are interrelated. Category theory is both an interesting object of philosophical study, and a potentially powerful formal tool for philosophical investigations of concepts such as space, system, and even truth. It can be applied to the study of logical systems in which case category theory is called "categorical doctrines" at the syntactic, proof-theoretic, and semantic levels. Category theory is an alternative to set theory as a foundation for mathematics. As such, it raises many issues about mathematical ontology and epistemology. Category theory thus affords philosophers and logicians much to use and reflect upon. [...]"
To quote one of my favorite mathematicians:
"In the years between 1920 and 1940 there occurred, as you know, a complete reformation of the classification of different branches of mathematics, necessitated by a new conception of the essence of mathematical thinking itself, which originated from the works of Cantor and Hilbert. From the latter there sprang the systematic axiomatization of mathematical science in entirety and the fundamental concept of mathematical structure. What you may perhaps be unaware of is that mathematics is about to go through a second revolution at this very moment. This is the one which is in a way completing the work of the first revolution, namely, which is releasing mathematics from the far too narrow conditions by
Teaching & PhD
Teaching
Mathematics