Nagle Lecture Series
2019 Nagle Lecture
Peter Kuchment
OUR MATHEMATICAL UNIVERSE: THE MYSTERIOUS POWER OF MATHEMATICS
April 4, 2019
Description of the Talk
Everyone has heard many times that “mathematics is useful in sciences, engineering, etc.” It is, indeed. However, no one has been able to answer the question “WHY does this happen?” Mathematicians are not big fans of discussing this (physicists are). The speaker is really going out on a limb (please, do not kill the messenger) presenting a discussion of (not an answer to) this question, with examples of various major historical developments in and applications of mathematics. No background in mathematics is needed (or is enough).
Description of the Speaker
Peter Kuchment is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Texas A&M University. He works in the areas of differential equations, geometric analysis, mathematical physics, and graph theory, with applications to medical imaging, condensed matter physics, and novel material science. He is also closely involved in K-12 education, e.g., running a summer high school math camp.
Dr. Kuchment received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Kharkov University (Ukraine) in 1973 and his Doctor of Science degree from Mathematics Institute of Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1983.
Besides many research papers, Dr. Kuchment has authored the books “The Radon Transform and Medical Imaging” (2014), “Introduction to Quantum Graphs” (jointly with G. Berkolaiko, 2013), and more esoteric “Floquet Theory for Partial Differential Equations” (1993). He has presented plenary lectures at AMS and SIAM meetings and an NSF-CBMS conference, as well as keynote and plenary lectures and series of lectures in many countries around the world. Dr. Kuchment is a Fellow of AMS (Inaugural class), SIAM, AAAS, and Institute of Physics, as well as Senior Member of IEEE.
The Organizing Committee of the Nagle Lecture Series thanks the USF Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the College of Arts and Sciences for sponsoring this event.