Title:

Role of Mathematics Across Science and Beyond

Speaker:

Prof. James Glimm

Affiliation:

University of Stony Brook

When:

Monday, November 22, 2010 at 4:30:00 PM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Klaus Building, Room 1116

Host:

William Wepfer
william.wepfer@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

The changing status of knowledge from descriptive to analytic, from empirical to theoretical and from intuitive to mathematical has to be one of the most striking adventures of the human spirit. The changes often occur in small steps and can be lost from view. In this lecture we will review vignettes drawn from the speaker's personal knowledge that illustrate this transformation in thinking. Examples include not only the traditional areas of physics and engineering, but also newer topics, as in biology and medicine, in the social sciences, in commerce, and in the arts. We also review some of the forces driving these changes, which ultimately have a profound effect on the organization of human life.

Biography

Professor James Glimm is the Chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at University of Stony Brook, New York. Prof. Glimm was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984. He won the National Medal of Science in 2002. From 2007-2009, he served as President of the American Mathematical Society. His other awards, honors, fellowships and memberships include the following: Fellow, SIAM (2009) Steele Prize for a paper of fundamental importance, AMS (1993) Dannie Heineman prize for Mathematical Physics (1980) New York Academy of Science Award in the Physical and Math Sciences (1979) National Science Foundation Fellowship (1959-1960) Guggenheim Fellowships (1963-1964, 1965-1966) Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, American Academy of Arts and Science Glimm has made outstanding contributions to shock wave theory, in which mathematical models are developed to explain natural phenomena that involve intense compression, such as air pressure in sonic booms, crust displacement in earthquakes, and density of material in volcanic eruptions and other explosions. He also has been a leading theorist in operator algebras, partial differential equations, mathematical physics, applied mathematics, and quantum statistical mechanics.