Seminars and Colloquiums
for the week of March 30, 2009
Speakers:
Dr. David Adams, University of Kentucky , Monday
Ms. Maisa Khader, Tuesday
Mr. Michael Neilan, Tuesday
Assistant Professor Remus Nicoara, Wednesday
Prof. Anna K. Panorska, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, UN, Reno, Thursday
Dr. Chaim Goodman-Strauss, University of Arkansas , Thursday
Mr. Brendon LaBuz, Friday
Monday, March 30
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS & COMPUTATIONAL APPLIED MATH SEMINAR
TIME: 3:35 p.m.
ROOM: AC 113A
SPEAKER: Dr. David Adams, University of Kentucky
TITLE: "Wolf potentials for the 3-d wave operator"
Tuesday, March 31
DOCTORAL DEFENSE
TIME: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
ROOM: Temple 303
SPEAKER: Ms. Maisa Khader
TITLE: “The Dissipative Nonlinear Wave Equations with Space-Time Dependent Potentials”
Her committee consists of Dr. Grozdena Todorova (chair), Dr. Don Hinton, Dr. Henry Simpson and Dr. Aly Fathy (Elec. Eng. & Comp. Sci).
DOCTORAL DEFENSE
TIME: 2:20 p.m.
ROOM: AC 113A
SPEAKER: Mr. Michael Neilan
TITLE: “Numerical Methods for Fully Nonlinear Second Order Partial Differential Equations”
His committee consists of Professors Feng (chair), Karakashian, Lenhart, and Pionke (MABE).
Wednesday, April 1
ANALYSIS SEMINAR
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 p.m.
ROOM: AC 113A
SPEAKER: Assistant Professor Remus Nicoara
TITLE: “Continuous deformations of commuting squares, last part"
ABSTRACT: We introduce commuting squares of finite dimensional matrix algebras and present a deformation theory for these objects. We discuss applications to inclusions of von Neumann algebras. Since we work with algebras of matrices, the talk should be quite accessible to graduate students.
WORKSHOP ON COARSE GEOMETRY
TIME: 4:35 – 5:25 p.m.
ROOM: AC 113
SPEAKER: Assistant Professor Remus Nicoara
TITLE: “Introduction to Kazhdan's property (T) II”
ABSTRACT: We give an introduction to property (T) for groups. We present several equivalent definitions, give examples and discuss connections to amenability. Property (T) is a rigidity property introduced by Kazhdan in 1967, which turned out to play an important role in various subjects, including ergodic theory, Lie groups, operator algebras, coarse geometry and graph theory. Graduate students are encouraged to attend.
Thursday, April 2
PROBABILITY SEMINAR
TIME: 12:40 – 1:55 p.m.
ROOM: HBB 132
SPEAKER: Prof. Anna K. Panorska, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, UN, Reno
TITLE: "What are the chances of the next “Dust Bowl” –
stochastic models for hydroclimatic events."
ABSTRACT: What are the chances of the next severe drought such as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s? To answer questions like this one we construct stochastic models for hydroclimatic events such as droughts, floods, or severe heat events. An event is defined as consecutive observations of a process above (or below) a threshold. Let N, X, and Y describe episodes, as their duration (N), magnitude (X) and maximum/peak (Y). Statistically we consider the problem of modeling the joint distribution of the duration, maximum and magnitude of stochastic episodes (events). We present exact joint distributions of the vectors (N, X) and (N, Y), and (X, Y) for N random and deterministic. Our motivation comes from climate and hydrology research and we apply our models to hydrological data to answer interesting questions such the one in the title of the talk. This talk is based on a joint work with Tomasz J. Kozubowski and Fares Qeadan.
JUNIOR COLLOQUIUM
TIME: 3:35 – 4:35 p.m.
ROOM: HBB 102
SPEAKER: Dr. Chaim Goodman-Strauss, University of Arkansas
TITLE: “Puzzles, Games and Undecidabilility”
ABSTRACT: Simple games and puzzles quickly lead us to one of the hallmark achievements of twentieth century mathematics, the recognition that there are true but formally unprovable mathematical statements. Far from an abstract, distant principle, 'undecidability' is intimately bound into every branch of mathematics -- in some sense, the generic mathematical statement is not provably true or false! Even in recreational mathematics, examples abound, as we will illustrate with various toys.
Friday, April 3
DOCTORAL DEFENSE
TIME: 3:35 – 4:35 p.m.
ROOM: AC 113
SPEAKER: Mr. Brendon LaBuz
TITLE: “Generalized uniform covering maps characterized as inverse limits of
uniform covering maps”
ABSTRACT: The definition of a generalized uniform covering map was inspired by a map that is the inverse limit of traditional covering maps. We will see ways in which generalized uniform covering maps can be characterized as inverse limits of covering maps.
Committee members: Professors Daverman, Dydak (chair), Thistlethwaite, and Zaretzki (Statistics).
If you are interested in giving or arranging a talk for one of our seminars or colloquiums, please review our calendar.
If you have questions, or a date you would like to confirm, please contact Dr. Steve Wise.
Week of:
3/16/09 (spring break)
Past notices:
Seminars from 2007-2008 academic year
Seminars from 2006-2007 academic year