Green Family Lecture Series by Alessio Figalli “Optimal Transport: From A to B… and Beyond”

May 19, 2025

Abstract

Ever wonder what the most efficient way is to move something from here to there? That’s precisely the question Gaspard Monge took on back in the 18th century. Fast forward to today, and the theory of Optimal Transport (OT) has evolved into a surprisingly versatile framework used in areas as diverse as economics, data science, and the natural sciences. In this talk, we’ll take a friendly tour through the fundamentals of OT, showing how it elegantly tackles “moving” problems big and small. We’ll also dive into a few fascinating applications, offering a glimpse of why OT has become such a central tool in modern mathematics and beyond.