For the past two winter studies I’ve taught a course on the Mathematics of LEGO bricks, with a goal of assembling a team to assemble the 3152 piece Superstar destroyer in under 10 minutes (we just missed by a few seconds the first year, and did it in under… Continue reading »
It is often said that mathematics is universal; one of my greatest joys, both as a parent and as a professor, is finding interesting and novel ways to illustrate various concepts. Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate to work with many great SMALL students on projects related to… Continue reading »
On the way home from receiving the million-dollar Abel Prize from King Harald of Norway, John Nash, along with his wife Alicia, was killed in a taxicab crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. I was at the Abel ceremonies May 21-22 myself to give the Science Lecture. Louis… Continue reading »
It was another glorious year in the Math/Stat department at Williams. We celebrated its end with our annual banquet, packed with over 150 faculty and students. As tradition, the new majors received a beverage wrench, and everyone joined in applauding the winners of this year’s awards. Colloquium… Continue reading »
Mathematics and statistics are essential skills for most of the best six jobs in 2015, according to the latest rankings by CareerCast.com. Here are the top six jobs: 1. Actuary 2. Audiologist 3. Mathematician 4. Statistician 5. Biomedical Engineer 6. Data Scientist For more information see also the… Continue reading »
Like many mathematicians, I’m happy when I can combine my work with my other passions. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I didn’t realize that all those games I watched when I was young was preparing me for a very productive career in sabermetrics, the science of applying math and… Continue reading »
Over six years ago, I wrote a post on ways in which mathematics (at a research level) and art (at a gallery level) can intersect today. The problem is that in our enlightened world, the work of the mathematician and the visual artist are not only viewed as incompatible, but… Continue reading »
Join us Wednesday, March 18th for a day of activities celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Williams Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. Events begin at 10am in Lawrence 231 where William Arms of Cornell, our distinguished visiting scholar, will give a talk in… Continue reading »
In Math 12, The Mathematics of Lego Bricks, while we used lego bricks as a springboard to talk about a lot of interesting math (the lectures and additional comments are available here), the main goal was to successfully build the… Continue reading »
The purpose of this column is to talk about the weekly math puzzle night dinners run by myself and Professor Palsson, and to invite you to join us for this and other related activities. Here’s a quick summary of problem solving activities here; for more information or to be… Continue reading »