NPR "Math Guy" Keith Devlin gives Bernard Lecture

When: October 16, 2008  7:30 pm-  8:30 pm

Speaker:  Dr. Keith Devlin, Stanford University

When Mathematics Changed the World:  At three distinct stages in the development of modern society, a mathematical development changed - in a fundamental, dramatic, and revolutionary way - how people understand the world and live their lives. (A fourth such change may be taking place during our lifetime, but only history will say if this is really the case.) Those advances occurred in 5,000 B.C., the 13th century, and the 17th century. Devlin will look at how human life and cognition changed on each of those three occasions.  The lecture is based on Devlin's latest book The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat and the Seventeenth Century Letter that Made the World Modern, Basic Books 2008.

Dr. Keith Devlin has written 26 books and over 75 published research articles. He has received the Pythagoras Prize, the Peano Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. He is "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. He also writes a monthly column Devlin's Angle for MAA (Mathematical Association of America) Online. Dr. Devlin is a Senior Researcher at Stanford’s Center for the Study of Language and Information and its Executive Director, a Consulting Professor in the Department of Mathematics, and a co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network and of the university's H-STAR institute. He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition.

Contact: Donna Molinek