应我院刘三阳教授、杨丹丹老师邀请，美国Nebraska-Lincoln大学John C. Meakin教授于2016年10月15日下午3:00在信远二区206报告厅为我院师生做了题为《The Semigroup ofnnMatrices: Some Open Problems》的学术报告。报告会由西北大学数学学院赵宪钟教授主持，我院部分老师、研究生参加了此次报告。

报告开始之前，赵宪钟教授向大家介绍了John C. Meakin教授在代数学研究领域做出的重要贡献。John C. Meakin教授的报告从一些基本的代数学概念入手，重点就一类重要半群：矩阵半群研究的代数意义，国际上在该领域已取得的研究成果，以及目前待解决的公开问题等几个方面展开探讨。报告期间，我院青年教师杨丹丹老师就相关公开问题的研究意义及方案，以及今后的合作方向与John Meakin教授进行了讨论。John C. Meakin教授思路清晰新颖，语言诙谐幽默，报告从提出问题开始就十分引人入胜，生动有趣又科学严谨，得到了大家的一致好评。报告最后，赵宪钟教授就John C. Meakin教授的报告内容做了精彩的总结，并对教授为大家的精心讲解表示真诚的感谢，报告圆满结束。

此次报告不仅让同学们了解到相关领域当前国际最新的研究成果，开阔了大家的学术视野，同时也让大家了解到矩阵半群方面的一些公开问题，激励大家用自己的专业知识去解决这些问题。

报告人简介：Professor John C. Meakinreceived his PhD on Mathematics from Monash University (Australia). He has been worked in Department of Mathematics,University of Nebraska-Lincoln, since 1969.

Professor John C. Meakin’s main research interests are in semigroup theory and geometric group theory. Some of his particular interests are in the theory of inverse semigroups (essentially semigroups of partial symmetries of mathematical objects) and in the study of algorithmic problems in semigroups and infinite groups. His work uses geometric and topological techniques as well as ideas from automata theory, formal language theory, and mathematical logic. He has more than 70 research papers published in prestigious mathematical journals and has undertaken many research grants from NSF.