This is a bit of an advance notice on a topics course I would like to
offer in Spring 05. A more detailed course description will be made
available in the Fall.  The subject of the course will be

`Zeta functions'

A large part of the course will focus on the Riemann zeta
function. Mostly, I would like to answer for myself the question:

`Why is it so important?'

After many years of avoiding this question, I now believe that I
shouldn't be, and that there is a good answer.  Following a survey of
the basic issues and classical work on the zeta function, I would like
to aim for a preliminary answer related to a number of different
recent developments.  In the course of doing so, we will touch on
several topics related to the zeta function, including
renormalization, random graphs, and random matrices.  This is the
reason for sending this message out now: Ercolani and Flaschka are
planning a course on random matrices for the fall. I attach below a
revised description for their course which they asked me to circulate
with this message.  While it is not strictly a prerequisite for my
course, it would certainly be a good course to take for motivation and
many related techniques.  So I highly recommend that people sign up
for it.

We strongly hope to have a very mixed audience for both courses,
including students interested in analysis, geometry, mathematical
physics, and number theory. It should be great fun to have all these
people talking to each other on a common topic of interest.

Minhyong Kim