A Romanian-educated University professor has been invited to speak at an international conference this summer in Kyoto, Japan.

Adrian Oceanu, professor of mathematics, will discuss his research as part of the International Congress of Mathematicians. The invitation to speak at the conference "represents the most distinguished speaking invitation one can receive in mathematics," said Richard Herman, head of the department of mathematics.

The event is held only once every four years and is hosted by a different nation each time.

Oceanu said he has accepted the invitation, issued by an international committee of mathematicians which sets the agenda of the Congress. He will discuss his current research in quantum symmetry, a part of quantum mechanics.

"The Congress is the major meeting of mathematicians to discuss theories and give out prizes," Oceanu said.

About 90 speakers will address 3,000 participants and the Field Medal will be awarded by the Congress, Oceanu said, comparing the mathematical award to the Nobel Prize.

Oceanu specializes in quantum mechanical mathematics. He said his main interests are in developments being made in incorporating mathematical theories into theoretical physics and in an area of study called quantum symmetry.

"Quantum mechanics is dealing with matter at a very small scale, where it behaves differently than matter on a normal scale," Oceanu said.

Quantum mechanics can describe matter at the subatomic level, he said.

Quantum mechanics has created formulas to describe physical phenomenon that cannot be explained by traditional mathematics, Oceanu said.

A conference held at the University in October addressed connections made between physics and the mathematics of quantum symmetry being developed by Oceanu and colleagues from around the world.

"It was the first conference that brought the subjects (physics and operator algebras, of which quantum symmetry is a part) together," he said.

The conference has created interest in the University's mathematics department, Oceanu said. At least one participant, Russian mathematician Boris Tsygan, has since joined the University's staff.

"Others intend to join," Oceanu said.

Oceanu attributes his success to his education in Romania.

"By the time you finish (Romanian) high school, you have had seven years of physics, six years of chemistry and two modern languages," he said. "The schools are very good," he added.

After receiving his masters degree at Bucharest University, he left the country to continue his education when political tides turned against the mathematical community, Oceanu said.

"After I finished my degree, they decided there would be no more Ph. D.'s awarded for three years," he said. "They decided there were enough."

He added that the country's only mathematical institute was also dismantled at the time.

He received his doctorate at the University of Warwick in England.

In high school, Oceanu participated in and won first place in an international competition, the International Math Olympiad held in Berlin.

When he left Romania, Oceanu brought the prize from the contest with him, even though he "wasn't sure that was allowed."

Oceanu said mathematics was more like writing fiction than engineering. "I was in Paris once and went into a cafe looking for a physicist, to discuss ideas," Oceanu said.

He said he later found his ideas in a theoretical paper published in Paris.

Mathematics is something that most people convince themselves they can't deal with, Oceanu said.

"But you can deal with it," he argued. "It can be grasped."