Speaker Series
SUMO hosts regular talks given by professors, grad students, or visitors 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 are generally accessible to freshmen in the 50-series.
Interested in giving a talk? Email us at (stanfordugradmath at gmail.com)
Past Speaker events
2019-2020 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024
2024–2025 Schedule
Fall 2024
| Date | Speaker | Title | Abstract | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title | Abstract | Media |
| October 16th | Rick Sommer | Proving Independence | Kurt Godel's ground-breaking Incompleteness Theorems demonstrate fundamental limits on formal mathematical reasoning. In particular, the First Incompleteness Theorem says, roughly, that for any reasonable axiomatization of mathematics there are statements that are neither provable nor refutable from those axioms. Such statements are said to be independent of the axioms. In this talk, we will explore methods for showing a statement is independent of a given an axiom system, and we will look at some famous examples. Our exploration will include a discussion of the independence of the Continuum Hypothesis, the statement that the cardinality of the real numbers is the next infinite cardinality after the cardinality of the natural numbers. | Poster \ Recording |
| November 1st | Mark Levi | Physics in Service of Math | Sometimes physical reasoning gives a strikingly short solution to a mathematical problem as in examples listed below. I chose these (out of many more) requiring no background beyond basic calculus. Somehow this connection between math and physics "fell between two seats" and is rarely if ever mentioned in textbooks. But this physical tradition in math goes back at least to Archimedes, who computed what we now call definite integrals using physical thought experiments. I will distribute the list below at the beginning of the lecture and ask for the show of hands for the first problem to discuss. After we are done with the first choice we will repeat the process until we run out of time. | Poster \ Recording |
More to come soon!!
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