One of the objectives of this general lecture series is to give new perspectives on the mathematics discipline to a wider range of academic communities. In addition to that, motivating and encouraging mathematics research culture on both national and regional scales.

Prof. Efim Zelmanov is a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, China, University of California, San Diego, USA, and the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, South Korea. He was awarded the Fields Medal in the year 1994.

Professor Zelmanov gives significant contributions to the field of Combinatorial Group Theory. The Group Theory itself studies the characteristics of operation in a collection of objects. By using the group theory, a mathematician can classify an object based on its characteristic in a group, rather than through collecting primary data from direct research.

The Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, Nadiem Makarim, sometimes ago said that there are three fields in mathematics that must be mastered by a student, those are statistics, probabilistic, and data science. Professor Zelmanov's expertise and his main contribution are in the field of mathematics, which is the mother of the three expertise that was conveyed by the minister. Therefore, this general lecture has a special relevancy for the academic communities that had the chance to attend Professor Zelamnov's lecture.

The lecture topic that was conveyed by Professor Zelmanov not only became an object of interest to satisfy the curiosity of scientists but can also become the foundation and the driving force of scientific advancement, which is in line with our national interest.

Translator: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)