R. Kent Nagle
The R. Kent Nagle Lecture Series
The Nagle Lecture Series (NLS) was established in honor of the late R. Kent
Nagle, a mathematician deeply interested not only in mathematics in itself, but
also in mathematics education and the impact of mathematics on society.
In this spirit, the NLS has invited world-renowned scholars to speak on such
matters in lectures designed for the general public.
Next Lecture: November 1, 2007 (see below)
Image courtesy of Chaim Goodman-Strauss.
November 1, 2007
John H. Conway explores the topic “From Topology to Symmetry”
Audience: The talk is open, intended for the general public, and it
is free.
Date: November 1, 2007
Time: Thursday evening 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Place: BSF 100, at USF-Tampa (For a map of the campus,
click here.)
Parking: Free parking is available in Lots 2A and 2B (adjacent to the
Bio-Science lecture hall BSF 100).
John Horton Conway
John H. Conway
From Topology to Symmetry
A description of the talk:
It is well known that the symmetries of repeating patterns in the Euclidean
plane belong to just one of 17 groups. Less well-known are the corresponding
enumerations for frieze patterns (7 types) and patterns on the sphere (7
particular groups + 7 infinite series) and the hyperbolic plane, which supports
a multiple infinity of groups. I shall describe some of these, and perhaps say
something about the corresponding enumerations in 3 and more dimensions.
A description of the speaker:
John Horton Conway is one of the world's most celebrated and prolific
mathematicians. His contributions span through many fields, including finite
group theory, knot theory, number theory, and coding theory. His work in
combinatorial game theory and cellular automata include not only major advances
in those fields but also popular works on games and his Game of Life automaton,
the latter of which appeared in Scientific American in 1970 and is now a
popular animation on the web.
Born December 26, 1937, in Liverpool, England, Conway studied mathematics
at Cambridge, where he started research under Harold Davenport. He has held
positions at CalTech, the University of Illinois in Chicago and the University
of Pennsylvania. Conway is currently a John von Neumann Professor at Princeton
University. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the
Junior Berwick Prize (1975), the first Polya Prize of the London Mathematical
Society (1987), the Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (1998), and the
American Mathematical Society Steele Prize (2000). He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 1981.
Previous Nagle Lecturers
Here is a list of the Nagle Lecturers, including their affiliation when they
delivered their address, and the title and date of their lecture, in reverse
chronological order:
Fang-Hua Lin,
Silver Professor of Mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
at New York University
- Problems for the Millennium: The Navier-Stokes Equations
- March 29, 2007
Louis H. Kauffman, Professor
of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science at the University of
Illinois at Chicago
- Unknots, Collapsing Tangles and DNA Recombination
- February 16, 2006
Andrew M. Odlyzko, Professor
of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota
- Cybersecurity, Mathematics, and Limits on Technology
- February 24, 2005
F. Alberto Grünbaum,
Professor of Mathematics at UC Berkeley
- Mathematics in Medical Imaging: the Present and the Future
- November 1, 2001
A. K. Dewdney, Professor
of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo
- Do Aliens Do Math?
- October 12, 2000
Jerrold Marsden, Professor
of Control and Dynamical Systems at the California Institute of Technology
- Dynamical Systems and Space Mission Design
- March 9, 2000
Simon Levin,
George Moffett Professor of Biology at Princeton University
- The Rise and Fall of Biodiversity
- January 21, 1999
Joseph Keller, Professor of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering (Emeritus)
at Stanford University
- Mathematics of Games and Sports
- November 5, 1998
Steven Krantz,
Professor of Mathematics at Washington University
- Contemporary Issues in Mathematics Education
- March 19, 1998
Arjen Lenstra, Corporate Technology Office of Citibank
- Securing the Net: The Fruits of Incompetence
- October 23, 1997
Persi Diaconis, Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University
- Mathematics and Magic Tricks
- March 20, 1997
Robert Devaney, Professor of Mathematics at Boston University
- Chaos, Fractals, and Dynamics
- February 13, 1997
George Andrews, Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State
University
- Ramanujan, Sums, and the Lost Notebook
- November 14, 1996
Peter Borwein, Professor of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University
- Mathematics in the Presence of Computers: The Rapidly Changing Face
of Pure Mathematics
- October 17, 1996
Harold Stevenson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan
- Asia's Young Achievers in Mathematics
- September 19, 1996