Simons Foundation

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four people speak in front of an auditorium

quote from Matteo Carandini: “This shows that the relationship between neural activity and blood volume is more complicated than people thought, but it’s fixed across brain regions and states. We can go from neural activity to blood volume in a rock-solid way.”

quote from Trudi Plummer: My hope is that the families understand that math is not just about homework or worksheets, and that they allow themselves to experience joy about the beauty of math.

Collage of David Hilbert and mathematical problems.

quote from Mike Shelley: “What we are doing is kind of reintroducing curiosity-driven research, but combined with thinking about the way things happen mechanistically,”

moon tree growing in a park

“I think the InternationalBrain Laboratory showedthat you can do large-scale, reproducible and effective neuroscience across institutions allaround the world.”
Dan BirmanAllen Institute

An infographic titled “Speed Bumps” explaining a mathematical method that accelerates molecular dynamics simulations by smoothing electrostatic energy landscapes. The left side contains text describing three concepts: (1) a computational bottleneck, where simulations must calculate pairwise electrostatic forces among many atoms; (2) a jagged terrain, where positively charged atoms create sharp peaks and negatively charged atoms create deep valleys in the electric potential; and (3) a smooth operator, where a refined “bump function” smooths these spikes to make calculations easier and faster. On the right, a diagram of orange positive and blue negative atoms connected by lines illustrates pairwise attraction and repulsion between charged particles. Below, a graph compares a spiky electrostatic potential with sharp peaks and valleys to a smoother, wavy potential that approximates the same landscape while reducing computational cost.

quote from David Hilbert: "mathematics is the foundation of all exact knowledge of natural phenomena.”

Infographic titled “Super Organized Sperm” explaining how fruit fly sperm avoid tangling in a small storage sac. Text notes that fruit fly sperm are extremely long—about 1,800 µm, nearly the length of the fly and ~40× longer than human sperm—while the storage sac is only ~200 µm long. A diagram of a fruit fly highlights its reproductive organs. Another illustration shows the long sperm coiled tightly inside the much smaller sac. At the bottom, a schematic depicts multiple sperm packed side-by-side in tube-like arrangements, each undulating in opposite directions; this counter-directional motion helps them stay organized and prevents tangling.

quote from Axel Saenz Rodriguez: "My long-term goal is to develop a nationwide network and community to address emerging needs on quantum information and technology"

portrait of David Hilbert

quote from Gervy Marie Angeles over a picture of her: “Most of all, I look forward to the serendipity that comes with these gatherings — the chance meetings and spontaneous exchanges — that no online interaction can really replace.”

group photo of people sitting in an auditorium

quote from Saul Villeda: "“One of the few interventions that is just tried and true, in that you know that it has an impact, especially on the brain, is exercise,”

quote from Maximiliano Isi: “This is a clear sign that there are multiple pathways to creating black holes.”

two people chat in front of a room

quote from Jiabao Li: "Working with Fumiko opened a whole new world for me — I see math in different ways. Fumiko and I became friends first, and then we became collaborators. Because we’ve become friends, we don’t feel intimidated; we can be naïve together. "

quote from Miles Stoudenmire: “We could have picked some more arbitrary target, But it was like ‘Why not pick this one that has a big claim attached to it?"

quote from Kevin Hu: " I am free to be curious and explore wonderful ideas, and in this sense, I feel like I am enjoying an extended childhood."

quote from Jiabao Li: "We lead with curiosity about each other’s work. This goes deeper than science communication, but makes spaces to ask weird questions that scientists might never think of. "

“Generative models are one of the most fundamental ways of thinking about how the brain is organized,” quote from Ueli Rutishauser over image of him pointing at a computer screen

Classical Compressions
Using mathematical structures calledtensor networks, quantum physicists have simulated models on a standard laptop that were once thought to be beyond the reach of classical computation. The achievement offers new insights into the behavior of quantum systems.

group of people sit in front of auditorium

photo of Whitney Gaskins with text: "Whitney Gaskins discusses STEMulating Adventures, an animated web series she developed that combines math with fun, inclusive storytelling."

quote from Tarik Yefsah: "The BCS theory gives us a view from outside the ballroom, where we can hear the music and see the dancers come out, but we don’t know what’s going on in the ballroom."

“Even today, I am amazed by how biomolecules function. And from the very start, I wondered: How does this work, from a physical perspective?” - quote from Pilar Cossio

quote from Whitney Gaskins: “We wanted to make sure people understood and appreciated math and how it works and really show them how math shows upin music, in space travel,in art, and even in the food that we eat and the products that we use.”