Dra. Pilar Bayer
Pilar Bayer, Emerita Professor at the University of Barcelona, founder of the Barcelona Number Theory Seminar, member of the Governing Board of the Catalan Mathematical Society and Numerary Member and Vice-President of the Experimental Sciences Section of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), took part on 29 April, alongside various groups and soloists, in the 40th edition of the Spring Concert revived by the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Barcelona. The event took place in the Great Hall, in the Historic Building where the Faculty also has its main headquarters, and featured performances by Mr Roura’s Band, Konstantin Dyakonov, Misterio Quartet, Tomás Sanz, Dúo Pulso, Coral·lari and Bayer herself.
The concert offered a blend of styles, alternating classical music, jazz, folk, choral singing and tango. The academic performed on the piano major songs by Elvis Presley, such as “Anyway You Want Me”, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Treat Me Nice”, in a tribute to the great rock and roll legend. “After seven years without being able to enjoy the Faculty’s Spring Concert, this year it resumes on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. The recovery of this initiative would not have been possible without the collaboration of all the musicians who took part; Pol Lobo, organiser of the concert, and the dean’s team of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science,” stated the posters and programmes for the event.
Beyond her long and successful career as a teacher and researcher, Bayer is a recognised populariser of the relationship between music and mathematics. In this regard, last October she published the article “La base matemàtica del so digital” in the magazine “Serra d’Or”, in which she addressed the connection between mathematics and music over centuries of scientific and artistic thought, analysing the numerical laws that enable the understanding and reproduction of sound. In other talks on the subject, always in an informative tone, the expert has explained the simultaneous use of musical and mathematical languages. She has also presented the mathematical concepts inherent in the new technologies that make possible both the reproduction of music in digital format and its generation through artificial intelligence techniques. She also took part in the latest session of the HarmoniesUPC series, held in the Assembly Hall of the Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering, a centre affiliated with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, under the title “Ritmes i probabilitats. Les matemàtiques del jazz”.
The academic was invested last year as magistra honoris causa by the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Bayer is also a numerary academician of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona and of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. She has received the Narcís Monturiol Medal for scientific and technological merit and was recognised last December with the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest distinction awarded by the Government of Catalonia.
