The Michael E. Moody Lecture Series

Michael Moody, Former Chair of the Department of Mathematics

The Harvey Mudd College Mathematics Department is establishing a lecture series in honor of Michael Moody. We are enthusiastic about recognizing Mike for his achievements and contributions to the College and our department.

Under his leadership as chair from 1996–2002, the mathematics department revised its curriculum, rejuvenated the senior-thesis program, and tripled the number of majors. Mike was a guiding force that led to our department being awarded the American Mathematical Society's inaugural award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department in 2006.

He also founded an evening lecture series that brought speakers to the College who illuminated the joy, wonder, and applicability of mathematics and that attracted hundreds of students. We would like to continue this tradition by establishing this lecture series in his honor.

Mike was thrilled and humbled to hear about our plans for this lecture series before he died in January, 2010. Our department—and many students, faculty, staff and friends within its community—have benefited from his extraordinary legacy.

The Next Lecture

Professor Ravi Vakil, 2013 Moody Lecture Speaker

Professor Ravi Vakil of Stanford University will present the fifth lecture in The Michael E. Moody Lecture Series on “The Mathematics of Doodling”

Ravi Vakil is a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford, where he is also the Robert K. Packard University Fellow and the David Huntington Faculty Scholar. He is an algebraic geometer, and his work touches on many other parts of mathematics, including topology, string theory, applied mathematics, combinatorics, number theory, and more.

He was born in Toronto, Canada, and studied at the University of Toronto, where he was a four-time Putnam Fellow (winner of the Putnam competition). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1997, and taught at Princeton and MIT before moving to Stanford in 2001. He has received the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, the AMS Centennial Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and numerous other awards. He is also currently the Mathematical Association of America's Pólya Lecturer 2012–2014, and an informal advisor to the new website mathoverflow. He works extensively with talented younger mathematicians at all levels, from high school (through math circles, camps, and olympiads), through recent Ph.D.'s.

More information about Ravi Vakil is available from his website.

The lecture will take place on Friday, April 19, 2013, at 7:00 PM, in HMC's Galileo McAlister lecture hall.

As with all of the college's evening speaker lectures, the talk is aimed at a wide audience and is open to all.

Dessert and refreshments will follow the talk.

Abstract

Spring 2013 Moody Lecture Poster Download the Poster

Doodling has many mathematical aspects: patterns, shapes, numbers, and more. Not surprisingly, there is often some sophisticated and fun mathematics buried inside common doodles. I'll begin by doodling, and see where it takes us. It looks like play, but it reflects what mathematics is really about: finding patterns in nature, explaining them, and extending them. By the end, we'll have seen some important notions in geometry, topology, physics, and elsewhere; some fundamental ideas guiding the development of mathematics over the course of the last century; and ongoing work continuing today.

Directions

Harvey Mudd College is located at 301 Platt Blvd, Claremont CA 91711, in the eastern Los Angeles area.

The closest airport is Ontario International Airport (ONT), and we strongly recommend that you fly to Ontario rather than one of the other Los Angeles area airports. Ontario International Airport is about eight miles away from the college.

The college provides driving directions from various points in Southern California.

Map with driving directions to Harvey Mudd College.

Free parking is available in the parking lots indicated in the map above or anywhere along 12th Street or Dartmouth Avenue below 12th Street.

About Harvey Mudd College

Harvey Mudd College is a private, liberal arts undergraduate institution of science, engineering and mathematics.

The Department of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College recently received the 2006 AMS Award for Exemplary Department or Program from the American Mathematical Society.

The college enrolls about 750 students of high ability; a third of them are National Merit Finalists and each year there are over 35 graduates in mathematics, with approximately half going on to graduate school. HMC is a member of the Claremont College consortium, which includes four other undergraduate colleges (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer) and two graduate institutions (Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute), forming an academic community of about 5000 students. There is an active research community of over 40 mathematicians in Claremont, with faculty seminars in analysis, topology, algebra and combinatorics, and applied mathematics.

Claremont is situated approximately 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. The community is known for its tree-lined streets and village charm. It is an easy drive from Claremont to the cultural attractions of the greater Los Angeles area, as well as the ocean, mountains and deserts of southern California.

To learn more about mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, please visit the department's home page.

Michael Moody Teaching Outside the Olin Science Building

Previous Talks

Supporting the Lecture Fund

Gifts can be made to the college to support The Michael E. Moody Lecture Series. Contributed funds will help us support the outstanding caliber of lecturers that Michael helped attract to the department and allow us to potentially support other activities in Michael's name that would enhance the department in ways that would make him proud.