Speaker Series (2013-2014)
The Stanford University Mathematical Organization hosts a weekly talk given by a professor, grad student, or visitor about undergraduate-accessible topics in pure and applied mathematics that go beyond the standard curriculum. The purpose of this series is to expose undergraduates to some topics not normally covered in the classroom, as well as to introduce them to Stanford's faculty and community. Talks will be accessible to freshmen in the honors 50-series.
Speaker Series is held each Thursday from 4:15 to 5:05 PM in 380-380C (in the basement of the math building), unless otherwise noted. Food is provided afterwards. You can get 1 unit of credit for your attendance by signing up for MATH 196; of course, you're also welcome to just show up.
2008-2009 | 2009-2010 | 2010-2011 | 2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019
2013–2014 Schedule
Fall 2013
| Date | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| September 26 | Professor Christelle Vincent | The integers vs. polynomials over a finite field: Who wins? |
| October 3 | Professor Daniel Kane | Dropping Lowest Grades |
| October 10 | Professor Satyan Devadoss (Williams College) | Robot Motion Planning |
| October 17 | Professor Brian Conrad | The projective plane |
| October 24 | Professor Greg Brumfiel | Linear Fractional Transformations |
| October 31 | Professor Hilaf Hasson | To what extent does what you can prove about your model determine your model? |
| November 7 | Daniel Litt | The Music of the Spheres |
| November 14 | No Talk! (Cancelled) | |
| November 21 | Professor Sheel Ganatra | Positive-definite integral quadratic forms and the 15 theorem |
| November 28 | No talk! (Thanksgiving Break) | - |
| December 5 | Professor Zhiwei Yun | Lattices, Trees, and 2-by-2 Matrices |
Winter 2014
| Date | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| January 9 | Professor Kannan Soundararajan | The Multiplication Table Problem |
| January 16 | Professor Daniel Bump | Combinatorial Games |
| January 23 | Professor Tom Church | Braids, permutations, and squarefree polynomials |
| January 30 | No Talk | - |
| February 6 | Daniel Alvarez-Gavela | The Hairy Ball Theorem |
| February 13 | Otis Chodosh | Discontinuities in Optimal Maps |
| February 20 | Nancy Rodriguez | Using mathematics to explore the phenomenon of social segregation |
| February 27 | Professor Robert Finn | The mathematics of surface tension, and its curious real-world implications |
| March 6 | Dr. Mario Micallef (University of Warwick) | Curvature and Holes |
| March 13 | No talk! | - |
Spring 2014
| Date | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| April 3 | Professor Solomon Friedberg (Boston College) | Packing Primes |
| April 10 | Brian Lawrence | Fibonacci Numbers mod p, (Notes) |
| April 17 | Etienne Ghys | The Mathematics of Clothing Design |
| April 24 | No talk this week! | - |
| May 1 | Professor Andras Vasy | Is every PDE solvable? And what does this have to do with large matrices? |
| May 8 | Professor Gunnar Carlsson | Topology of Data Sets |
| May 15 | Professor Maryam Mirzakhani | Sperner's Lemma |
| May 22 | Evan Warner | Number Theory on Bubbles |
| May 29 | Brian Conrad | Elementary integration and differential Galois theory |
