BEN GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

Number Theory, Algebraic Geometry and Galois Theory in Be'er-Sheva

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, located in the southern Israeli city of Be'er-Sheva, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. The university has grown significantly recently, tripling the number of students in the last ten years to approximately 15,000.

The Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry group is even younger. The group now counts 9 mathematicians, most of them arriving in the last 5 years, and the group is still growing. We have a very active and high level seminar. Members of the group belong to the TMR networks of the European community in Algebraic Geometry, Arithmetic Geometry, and Galois Theory and Explicit Methods in Arithmetic.

Be'er-Sheva is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is already mentioned in the Biblical stories about Abraham and the Hebrew forefathers. The city got its name, which literaly means "the well of the oath", from the covenant made by Abraham with Avimelech, the Philistine king of Grar. Much like the university and our group, the city of Be'er-Sheva has grown significantly in the last couple of years with recent waves of immigration from the former Soviet republics, and is now the fourth largest city in Israel with 190,000 inhabitants.

Be'er-Sheva is located on the edge of the Negev desert. Its climate is therefore generally better than in the Tel-Aviv area, with slightly hotter, but much less humid summers, and with a lot less rain in winter.

Be'er-Sheva is an excellent base point from which to explore the Negev desert, the only large sparsely populated area in Israel, with its beautiful sights