Interview with Sing-Tung Yau
Date: 10:30 22/01/2021
This is an interview with Shing-Tung Yau. He is mainly known for his 
contribution to Differential Geometry, Calabi-Yau varieties and String Theory. 
The interview will be around the following questions: 

1. Please tell us about your first mathematical experiences: They were fostered by which people and who were your first mathematics teachers? 
 
2. What is your first feeling of discovery in mathematics? 

3. Tell us about the Calabi conjecture? When for the first time you read about this? 

4. How it happened that Calabi-Yau varieties became popular in String theory?

5. The quintic and mirror quintic are among the most popular Calabi-Yau varieties in string theory. When for the first time you knew about these Calabi-Yau varieties?

6. The seminar GADEPs is about periods, and periods of Calabi-Yau varieties play an important role in mirror symmetry. After your works, in differential geometry of Calabi-Yau varieties, how you became interested in Hodge theory of Calabi-Yau varieties?


7. The most simple, but still no-trivial, Calabi-Yau variety is an elliptic curve with a huge amount of literature about its arithmetic. What is the status of arithmetic of  Calabi-Yau varieties and what do you think are the most important problems in this direction?

8. What has been your obsession in mathematics? Which conjecture you have tried a lot but you failed?

9. You have built many mathematics institute around the world. Can you tell us how it started?
In particular, how you founded CMSA at Harvard? 
   
10. At CMSA  the focus has been in applications of mathematics in others branches of science. Can you tell us this shift in your career from pure to applied mathematics? 



11.  If you were to start a new career, what you would choose in mathematics or even science or art?