Roots of Knowledge Speaker Series: Dr. Tom Hales

800 West University Parkway,Orem UT 84097

15 March, 2022

Description

Join us for a presentation by Dr. Tom Hales in the beautiful Roots of Knowledge stained-glass gallery! Free and open to all! “Symmetry in Art and Mathematics” - Presented by Dr. Tom HalesSymmetry refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. throughout history, symmetry is one way that we have tried to understand the world, both in the humanities and in science. This talk will show how symmetry is woven throughout the Roots of Knowledge.One winter night over four hundred years ago, as it started to snow, the great astronomer Kepler stared to wonder about the six-sided shape of the snowflake and its ornate symmetry. This led Kepler to make a mathematical conjecture that I finally resolved 400 years later. One of the panels of the Roots of Knowledge depicts this story. About Dr. Tom HalesThomas C. Hales is the Mellon Professor of Mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University, a Tripos Part III from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in representation theory under R. P. Langlands. He has held postdoctoral and faculty appointments at MSRI, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the University of Michigan. In 1998, Hales, with the help of his graduate student Samuel Ferguson, proved Kepler’s 1611 conjecture (and part of Hilbert’s 18th problem) on the most efficient way to stack oranges. In 2014, he and his coworkers gave a formal proof of the Kepler conjecture in the computer proof assistant “HOL Light.” Hales has received the Chauvenet Prize of the MAA (2003), the Moore Prize (2004), the Robbins Prize of the AMS (2007), the Lester Ford Prize of the MAA (2008), and the Fulkerson Prize of the MPS and AMS (2009). He is an inaugural Fellow of the AMS (2012).His current project is "Formal Abstracts in Mathematics," which will transform mathematical statements from journal articles into a form that can be processed and manipulated by formal proof systems.______________________Roots of Knowledge is a stained-glass panorama of history and human drama. The intricate details incorporated into every window represent years of painstaking research on the events and people that shaped humankind from the days of wooly mammoths and cavemen to the iPhone. Created by Holdman Studios and installed at the UVU Fulton Library in 2016, this artistic landmark comprises 80 individual panes and took 12 years to complete.For information on where to park at UVU, please visit https://www.uvu.edu/parking/visitor-parking.html.