The Ulam lectures this semester will be around Chevalley groups and generalizations. Chevalley groups were important in leading to the theory of algebraic groups and in the classification of finite groups. They are of interest to representation theorists, algebraic geometers, number theorists and many other mathematicians.
As promised, I (Mike Woodbury) will not be giving all of the lectures. Our first "outside" speaker is our own Breeann Wilson who will teach us this week about the structure and classification of semisimple and simple Lie algebras over the complex field. In conjunction with and in preparation for Breeann's talk, we will also hold a problem/example session Tuesday at 4:05pm in Math 350. The goal of the Tuesday session is to see some concrete examples of Lie algebras and their root systems.
Reminder to all faculty: If you have a specific application or generalization of Chevalley groups (such as a paper or papers) that you think your current or future grad students would benefit to learn, please share your ideas with me (michael.woodbury@colorado.edu). I imagine the students that already do or may end up working with you would appreciate learning something particularly relevant to your field.
Structure and classification of (semi)simple Lie algebras