Fields Medalist Vaughan Jones visited IPAM on May 1 and 2, 2018 to give the Green Family Lectures and participate in the IPAM workshop, Approximation Properties in Operator Algebras and Ergodic Theory.  Jones’s first talk, “What is it about the Plane” introduced the notion of “planar algebra” and illustrated it in many ways.  His second lecture, “God May or May Not Play Dice but He Sure Loves a von Neumann Algebra” Jones explains why a von Neumann algebra is as natural and necessary for understanding the quantum world as manifolds are for the classical world.  Jones, who is the Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University, is known for his work on von Neumann algebras and knot polynomials.  His lively lectures were well attended by participants of the Quantitative Linear Algebra long program and the UCLA community.  You can view both lectures on our YouTube Channel or on our website.