UAHuntsville and Department of Mathematical Sciences

invite you to attend the

2011 UAH Distinguished Lectures in Applied Mathematics

with

Professor Peter D. Lax, Abel Laureate
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

Public Lecture: The Life and Times of John Von Neumann †

3:00-4:00p.m, Thursday, April 7
107 Shelby Center
University of Alabama in Huntsville

Opening Remarks
by
Professor John D. Fix, Dean
College of Science

Abstract:

Today, more than fifty years after his death, von Neumann looms larger than ever as one of the most significant scientists of the 20th century, one of its greatest mathematicians, a father of the modern computer and modern computational science, and a prophet of the age of technology. My twin aim is to paint a picture of the fertility, power, and sweep of his mind, and to describe how his ideas shaped the future.

† John von Neumann invented the modern computers and the interaction between these two scholars and the birth of scientific computing and the HPC revolution owe their origins to the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4573225.stm


Research Lecture: Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations and Degenerate Matrices

3:00-4:00 p.m., Friday, April 8
111 Salmon Library
University of Alabama in Huntsville

Opening Remarks
by
Professor John D. Fix, Dean
College of Science

Abstract:

The occurrence of multiple characteristics for hyperbolic systems gives rise to singularities in solutions. This leads to topological and algebraic questions about degenerate symmetric matrices and their discriminant.

IMAGE: picture


Bio Sketch:

Peter D. Lax, Ph.D, is a very distinguished pure and applied mathematician who has made significant contributions, ranging from partial differential equations to applications in engineering. He has made ground breaking contributions to shock waves, solitons and entropy. His name is connected with many major mathematical results and numerical methods, such as Lax-Milgram Lemma, the Lax Equivalence Theorem, the Lax-Friedrichs Scheme, the Lax- Wendroff Scheme, the Lax Entropy Condition to name a few.

For his outstanding research contributions, spanning half a century, to the theory and applications of partial differential equations and to the computation of their solutions, he was awarded the Abel Prize in 2005 (mathematics equivalent of Nobel prize created by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and letters http://www.mat.ucm.es/~ln06/lax/abelprize_2005_EN.pdf). Lax has also served on governing and advisory boards for various government agencies, academic institutions, and scientific societies.

His other recognitions include, the National Medal of Science in 1986, presented by President Ronald Reagan at a White House ceremony, the Wolf Prize in 1987 and the Chauvenet Prize in 1974 and the American Mathematical Society's Steele Prize in 1992. He was also awarded the Norbert Wiener Prize in 1975 from the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

He was elected to the American Philosophical Society (1996), the Academy of Sciences (Paris) (1982), the National Academy of Sciences (United States) (1982), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1982), the New York Academy of Sciences (1982), the Russian Academy of Sciences (1989), the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1993), Academia Sinica, Beijing (1993), the Moscow Mathematical Society (1995), and the London Mathematical Society.


Sponsor: Office of the Provost and the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Inquieries: S.S. Ravindran at (256) 824 6611 or ravinds@uah.edu
This event is free and open to the public.