SPOTLIGHT
MARIA CHUDNOVSKY
FIELDS@QUEEN'S
Professor Maria Chudnovksy
(Princeton University) is a leading
researcher in graph theory and
combinatorics. For her joint work
proving the strong perfect graph
theorem, she was awarded the
Ostrowski Foundation research
stipend in 2003 and the Fulkerson
Prize in 2009. In 2012, she
was awarded the MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship and
was an invited speaker at the
2014 International Congress of
Mathematicians. Chudnovksy
was also named one of the
“brilliant ten” young scientists
by Popular Science magazine.
On March 7, 2019, Chudnovsky
gave a talk at Queen’s University
titled Parties, Donuts, and
Coloring: Some Problems in
Graph Theory, which included
discussion of a handful of classical
problems in graph theory, and
their relationships to fields of
research being pursued today.
KEITH DEVLIN
2018-2019 RCI LECTURE
SPEAKER IVAR EKELAND
KEYFITZ LECTURE SERIES
Founded in 1849, the Royal
Canadian Institute (RCI) is among
the oldest societies of its kind in
Canada. After more than a century,
and with few interruptions during
times of global crisis, RCI lectures
continue to take place today.
Keith Devlin, colloquially known
as “the Math Guy” on National
Public Radio, is the Director of the
Stanford Mathematics Outreach
Project in the Graduate School
of Education, a co-founder and
Executive Director Emeritus of
the university’s H-STAR Institute,
a co-founder of the Stanford
mediaX research network, and
a Senior Researcher Emeritus
at the Centre for the Study of
Language and Information. He
is a World Economic Forum
Fellow, a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement
of Science, and a Fellow of the
American Mathematical Society. The Fields Institute hosts the
Keyfitz Lecture Series on the
topic of mathematics and the
social sciences. These public
lectures are of interest to the
university community as well as
to individuals involved in public
administration, economics, health
policy, social, and political science.
His talk, What do mathematicians
do now that machines can ‘do (all)
the math?’, explored the training,
life, and work of mathematicians
living in a world where machines
handle far more variables than
humans ever could, with fewer
errors, and in a fraction of a second.
The purpose of the series is both
to inform the public of some of
the ways quantitative methods
are being used to design solutions
to societal problems, and to
encourage dialogue between
mathematical and social scientists.
Ivar Ekeland’s talk, Mathematics
for Survival, was delivered
on April 3, 2019 at the Fields
Institute and used Isaac Asimov’s
writings as a starting point to
pose persistent questions: are
mathematical models useful tools
to predict the future, and if so,
how might we use mathematics to
prevent unpleasant outcomes?
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