Banquet

There was a really nice banquet tonight. At our table were...

Guofang Wei (UC-Santa Barbara), Siye Wu (University of Hong Kong), Wei-Dong Ruan (Korean Institute of Science and Technology)...

Conan Leung (Chinese University of Hong Kong), and Jaigyoung Choe (Korean Institute for Advanced Study and a former colleague of mine at Rice)

I forgot to take pictures of the food. Above is a delicious chicken stew that seems to be a standard here. One thing we got that I found surprising were whole steamed crabs, which we had to break apart and eat with our bare hands. The Chinese at the table were bemused when I told them I thought Chinese never ate with their hands and were able to eat everything with chopsticks and their mouths.

Here is Yau giving a speech.

One impressive aspect of the conference is the number of people who either were or are affiliated with Columbia. At my table alone, Wu, Ruan, and I were all at Columbia.