A mathematical ecologist recently elected to the Australian Academy of Science and an American professor who can do mental arithmetic faster than a calculator will give free public lectures at UQ St Lucia next week.
The two lectures will take place in Room 222, Parnell (Physics) Building, UQ St Lucia Campus.
Thursday July 7 at 7pm
Director of UQ’s Ecology Centre and Academy Fellow, Professor Hugh Possingham will give a talk entitled “Saving the planet efficiently: The mathematics of biodiversity conservation”.
The world is in the midst of an extinction crisis and half of all species may die out over the next 200 years. In this easy-to-understand public lecture, Professor Possingham will show how the problem of allocating billions of conservation dollars across the globe can be formulated and solved mathematically. He will also explain the ideas behind his group’s marine reserve design software that is changing the face of the world’s oceans, including the Great Barrier Reef. (Visit www.maths.uq.edu.au/IAGSM/plecture.html for more details.)
A light supper will be served at 8pm, RSVP to hg@maths.uq.edu.au.
Friday July 8 at 11am
Mental arithmetic whiz Professor Arthur Benjamin from California’s Harvey Mudd College will discuss “Counting on Determinants” at his public lecture.
Professor Benjamin is well known for his popular and entertaining Mathemagics public demonstrations. In this talk, as well as wearing his trade-mark bowtie with mathematical symbols, he’ll use his flamboyant flair for presentation to illuminate an elegant area of mathematics, accessible to anyone who`s done a bit of university maths. He will demonstrate how determinants solve many combinatorial problems and how many interesting theorems about determinants can be viewed combinatorially. Applications to Pascal’s Triangle, Fibonacci numbers and Catalan numbers will also be given as well as a new combinatorial proof of Vandermonde’s determinant. (Art Benjamin’s website http://www.math.hmc.edu/faculty/benjamin/)
No RSVP is necessary and all are welcome to attend.
Media: For further information contact Professor Hugh Possingham (07 3365 9766), Dr Michael Bulmer (07 3365 7905) or Lynda Flower (07 3365 2151, 0407 697 937).
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