Math & Stats Events: 2023 - 2024

Math Table

Every Monday from 12:00 - 1:30 pm 
Usually held in Valentine Terrace Room A - downstairs in Valentine Hall 
Watch for emails for any changes

Math Table is an informal social time for students and faculty to get together and chat. There's no need to be majoring in Mathematics or Statistics; all are welcome. Please join us any time on Mondays between noon and 1:30 pm.


Upcoming Math Colloquium: 

The Amherst College Math Colloquium is a series of talks for undergraduates. More information about upcoming and past talks can be found at 
https://npflueger.github.io/colloquium

All are welcome! The talks are intended to be mostly accessible to students who have taken calculus, although they may also provide a preview of deeper waters. The colloquium talks are usually one hour long (50 + 10 minutes for questions). We usually have a 30 minute pre-talk small gathering (with snacks and refreshments) beforehand. 

Wednesday, March 27
Speaker: Jessica Sidman (Amherst College)
4:00pm talk in SMUD 206; 3:45pm refreshments in SMUD 208
Topic: Tensegrities: linear algebra as art?

Abstract: Kenneth Snelson's beautiful tensegrity sculptures feature metal bars that seem to float magically in the air.  In this talk I'll try to convince you that a tensegrity is the physical manifestation of a linear dependence relation on the rows of a matrix.  Then I'll discuss how the mathematics used to describe tensegrities can also be used to study other disparate problems including sensor network localization, the rigidity of bar-and-joint frameworks, and the distributed control of formations of robots.

Speaker bio:  Jessica Sidman loves to work on pure and applied problems at the intersection of computational algebra, algebraic geometry, and combinatorics. Her recent work in rigidity theory combines aspects of these three fields, and all got started when an undergraduate doing a thesis on protein folding asked her a question about projective space. She got her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and did postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley and UMass Amherst.  She was the Professor of Mathematics on the John Stewart Kennedy Foundation at Mount Holyoke College and is now a Professor of Mathematics at Amherst College.

Wednesday, April 3
Speaker: Peyam Tabrizian (Brown University)
5:00pm talk in SMUD 206; 4:30pm refreshments in SMUD 208
Topic: It's all about Chemistry!

Abstract: Have you ever wondered what a Partial Differential Equation (PDE) is and how it is used to model real life? In this talk, I will give two different PDE models for a chemical reaction and show that they are two different sides of the same coin. Come and see how a simple integration by parts makes all our worries go away! No math knowledge (beyond calculus) and no chemistry knowledge required.

Bio: Peyam Tabrizian (he/him) is currently a Lecturer in the Applied Mathematics Department at Brown University. His speciality lies in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations, and his thesis work was on asymptotic methods for chemical reactions and diffusions. He also has a YouTube channel called "Dr Peyam" which currently has over 166,667 subscribers and close to 1000 videos.

Wednesday, April 17
Speaker: Dr. Alanna Hoyer-Leitzel (Mount Holyoke College)
4:00pm talk in SMUD 206; 3:45pm refreshments in SMUD 208 


Upcoming Statistics and Data Science Colloquium talks:

The Amherst College Statistics and Data Science Colloquium is a series of talks for undergraduates.

All are welcome! The talks are intended to be  accessible to students who have taken several statistics courses, although they may also provide a preview of deeper waters. The colloquium talks are usually one hour long (50 + 10 minutes for questions). We usually have a 15 minute pre-talk small gathering (with snacks and refreshments) beforehand.

More information about the Statistics and Data Science Colloquium series and upcoming talks can be found at the following link: https://nhorton.people.amherst.edu/colloquia.
  

A logo of a man coming out of a calculator that says Art Benjamin: Mathemagician

Art Benjamin: Mathemagician

Watch a video of Art Benjamin, mathematician and mathemagician, who preformed at the Lipton Lecture Hall in the Science Center on October 16, 2023. Please note: the video is restricted to logged in Amherst College students, faculty and staff.