Math Club Colloquium

Welcome to the Math Club Colloquium pages! Here you will find a record of colloquium talks dating back to 2010. Talks are accessible to a broad audience of students and faculty in mathematics and related disciplines. It is usually held during common hour on Tuesdays from 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, but the day, time and location does change so please note the details listed by each talk. 

Academic Year 2023 - 2024  (Club Homepage and Officers)

(Talks are in chronological order. Please scroll to the end of the page to see upcoming Spring 2024 talks.)

FALL 2023

Tuesday Sep 5, 2023: Noson Yanofsky (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: An Invitation to Category Theory

Abstract: Over the past few decades category theory has been used in many different areas of mathematics, physics, and computers. The applications of category theory have arisen in (to name just a few) quantum field theory, database theory, abstract algebra, formal language theory, quantum algebra, theoretical biology, knot theory, universal algebra, string theory, quantum computing, self-referential paradoxes, etc. Categories are collections of structures and ways of changing those structures. The theory of categories has emerged as a theory of structures and processes. As such, they have been used to describe many different phenomena in mathematics and science. We will describe many many basic examples of categories and their related structures. This will help us see why category theory is a unifying language in mathematics, computer science, and physics. This talk is open to anyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARFM1NFX6I8 (Part 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyvlaPt73Ko (Part 2)

Thursday Sep 14, 2023: Mark Gibson-Cardinali (Brooklyn College)

Time: 3:40 pm - 4:40 pm (Please note the different day and time)

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: Exploring the Infinite: Cantor’s Theorem and the Continuum Hypothesis 

Abstract: Join us as we journey through the landscapes of infinity and delve into one of the most remarkable results from Set Theory - the profound theorem formulated by Georg Cantor. We will explore Cantor’s Theorem in detail and and see how it implies the existence of infinitely-many (distinct) infinite cardinalities. We will then venture further and encounter the intriguing puzzle known as the Continuum Hypothesis, a perplexing inquiry that Cantor himself posed but could not resolve. This hypothesis remained a challenge for generations, until a remarkable breakthrough by mathematician Paul Cohen, a former student at our very own Brooklyn College. All are invited as we celebrate Cantor’s results on infinity, the resulting mysteries that arose, and the triumph of human intellect. Curiosity is the only prerequisite - no prior mathematical expertise required.

Tuesday Sep 19, 2023: Diana Hubbard (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 2:15 pm

Location: 328 Ingersoll Extension

Title: Math Circle on Math & Networks

Description: A math circle is an informal and fun math learning and problem-solving session. In this math circle we'll think about questions that can be tackled using networks like deciding who to vaccinate during a disease outbreak. We'll explore both the power and limitations of mathematics for working on complex real-world problems.  All are welcome, no matter your mathematical background. Join us!

Tuesday Sep 26, 2023: Diana Hubbard (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll

Title: An invitation to knot theory

Abstract: Take a piece of thin string, tie it up in some way, and then glue the ends together. The object you get is what mathematicians call a knot. Knot theory is a branch of mathematics focused on studying knots: how can you distinguish them, how can you find similarities between them, and how can we use them to study other mathematical problems. In this talk I will introduce knot theory and some of its applications. Everyone is welcome!

Tuesday Oct 3,  2023: Diogo Pinheiro (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: An Elementary Overview of Two Alternative Mathematical Formulations for Classical Mechanics

Abstract:  We will provide a brief introduction to two alternative formulations for classical mechanics: Lagrangian mechanics and Hamiltonian mechanics. In particular, we will highlight the connections between the two formulations, with an emphasis on the stationary-action principles underlying each, as well as the role that symmetry plays in the study of the associated dynamical systems.

Tuesday Oct 24, 2023: Diana Hubbard ( Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

Location: Ingersoll Extension Room 148 

Title: Career Panel: What can you do with a degree in mathematics?

Abstract: The panel will feature four Brooklyn College alumni who earned majors or minors from the mathematics department:

Abraham Barides, Actuarial Lead Analyst at Cigna

Adina Scheinfeld, Research Specialist at Princeton University

Lee Ann Thompson, Senior Quantitative Analytics Manager at HSBC

Markus Wu, Software Engineer at Google

Please join us to hear their stories, learn about the doors a math degree can open for you, and get advice on how to make the most of your time at Brooklyn College and land that first job after graduation! Pizza and refreshments will be served as long as supplies last. 

Tuesday Oct 31, 2023: Matthew Moore (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm– 1:30 pm

Location: 3305 Boylan Hall (Philosophy Seminar Room) 

Title: Big Sets, Bigger Sets and their Discontents 

Abstract: In the closing decades of the nineteenth century mathematicians and logicians made a  number of foundational breakthroughs. Georg Cantor’s pioneering work in set theory  met with resistance at first in many quarters, but it was not long before David Hilbert  (another giant in both mathematics and foundations) could be motivated by the hope  that we would never be expelled from the paradise that Cantor had created for us. And  set theory has indeed proved to be an essential tool in the mathematician’s kit. In this talk we will review some of the apparently paradoxical discoveries (such as  multiple grades of infinity) that occasioned the early resistance to Cantor’s work, and  some of the genuine paradoxes (including Russell’s Paradox and Cantor’s own) that led  to refinements in the theory, issuing in such standard axiomatizations as Zermelo Fraenkel set theory with Choice (ZFC for short). We will also talk about the radical  incompleteness of ZFC, and about the philosophical implications of the search for new  axioms that can settle the open question of the size of the continuum. 

This is a joint event with the Philosophy Club

Tuesday, November 7: David Aulicino (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm 

Location: Ingersoll Hall Extension 432

Title: Vertex-To-Self Trajectories on the Dodecahedron 

Abstract: Starting at a vertex of a Platonic solid, is it possible to walk on the surface of it in a straight line so that we return to the vertex we started at without passing through another? Surprisingly, the answer depends on which Platonic solid we consider. We will review what the Platonic solids are and explain how to

solve this problem for the tetrahedron. There will be lots of pictures, animations, and 3D models. Students are encouraged to bring scissors and tape!

Tuesday Nov 9, 2023: Phillip Thibodeau (Brooklyn College)

Time: 3:40 pm – 4:40 pm (Please note the different day and time)

Location: 2405 Boylan Hall

Title: A whirlwind tour of Archimedes' mathematical puzzles

Abstract: The Greek scientist Archimedes of Syracuse was not just a brilliant mathematician and engineer - he also had a sense of play. This talk will sketch out, in easy-to-understand terms, some of the ingenuity and playfulness that he displayed both in creating and solving three particular problems, namely: how many grains of sand would it take to fill the universe? How many cows and bulls did the God of the Sun tend on Sicily? And in how many different ways could a seemingly simple children's puzzle - the so-called 'ostomachion' - be put together to form a rectangle?  

This is a joint event with the Classical Society.

Tuesday Nov 28, 2023: Stephen Preston (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: Geometry and the motion of rigid bodies

Abstract: Toss a ball in the air and catch it in your other hand. You know what it will do on the way: the center of mass will move in a parabola, and the ball will spin around its center with the same spin you gave it. If you do the same thing with your phone (or if you're less brave, a book with rubber bands to keep it closed), it still moves in a parabola, but it wobbles around the center of mass. I will explain the equations that describe this wobbling, and how they relate to geodesics (shortest paths) on a three-dimensional sphere (the one that lives in four-dimensional space). Then I'll explain how the same ideas can be used to study the motion of the air and water on our planet. Along the way we will see bits of elliptic functions, differential geometry, and Lie groups, along with some surprising new results that have just been discovered. The background needed to make sense of this is ordinary differential equations (Math 2206) and linear algebra (Math 2101).  

SPRING 2024

Tuesday Feb 6, 2024: Christian Benes (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: Random Fractal

Abstract: One of the "hottest" topics of research in probability of the past few decades is a random fractal called the Schramm-Loewner Evolution (SLE). Since the start of the 21st century, three mathematicians were awarded Fields Medals for their work on random processes such as loop-erased random walk, percolation, and the Ising model, which are all related to SLE. In this talk, I'll explain what fractals are and how random fractals appear naturally in a number of physical phenomena.

(Mathematical Sciences Colloquium organized by Daniel Ginsberg)

Tuesday Feb 20, 2024: Joonhyun La (Princeton University and the Korea Institute for Advanced Study)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall 

Title: On scaling limits

Abstract: Have you seen the movie "Ant-Man"? The world seems very different, depending on your size (scale). People have developed the "physics" of different scales, for example, fluid dynamics for everyday scales, kinetic theory for smaller ones, and molecular dynamics for even smaller ones. One natural question would be: is the world fundamentally, not only apparently, different, depending on your scale? One way of approaching this question is to figure out if we can derive physics (equation) of larger scales as a reasonable limit of that of smaller scales. In this talk, we will briefly take a look at such scaling limits. The talk should be accessible to undergraduate students,

Tuesday Feb 27, 2024: Diogo Pinheiro (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: Noether's Theorem and the Role of Symmetry in Classical Mechanics

Abstract: We will provide a brief introduction to the role that symmetry plays in the study of certain dynamical systems. Namely, we will discuss Noether's Theorem within the Lagrangian mechanics framework and provide some illustrative examples of its use to identify conserved quantities of classical mechanical systems.

Thursday Mar 14, 2024:  Pi Day Celebration

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1310 Ingersoll Hall

The event will feature a Pi Bee, a "pi-ku" writing contest, a tangram station, Faculty Two Truths and a Lie, plenty of prizes, and of course, free pizza and dessert pie. Come to throw your hat in the ring in one of the competitions or just hang out and relax! 

Distinguished Speaker Series organized by Diana Hubbard

Tuesday Mar 19, 2024: Moon Duchin (Tufts University)

Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm

Location: 148 Ingersoll Extension

Title: Modeling Democrary

The talk will focus on the design and consequences of a ranked-choice voting system, such as the one currently in place in New York City. Professor Duchin is a pioneer in using mathematics to tackle issues central to our democracy. Her many research areas include the mathematics of redistricting and gerrymandering as well as geometry, topology, and group theory. She founded a nonpartisan research group focusing on gerrymandering and has served as an advisor on congressional districting maps. She has won many awards and honors for her work, including being named as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2016 and being awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018. Please join the Math Department to hear her speak on this vital topic as we make our way into another important election year.

Tuesday March 26, 2024: Daniel Ginsberg (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: Nonlinear phenomena and blowup in problems of mathematical physics 

Abstract: Many of the interesting phenomena appearing in mathematical physics (the breaking of waves in the ocean, the collapse of black holes, the propagation of shock waves in gases…) are described by nonlinear partial differential equations. The nonlinearity means there is “feedback” present in the system: growth begets more growth. This often leads to “blowup”, or the formation of singularities. I will describe some of these phenomena in simple settings. No knowledge of differential equations is assumed, though it will help.

Tuesday Apr 9: Sandra Kingan (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm

Location: 1146 Ingersoll Hall

Title: On the epidemic threshold of a network

Abstract: In this talk we present an approach to vertex centrality that measures the impact of a vertex v in a graph G by removing it and considering the subgraph G-v. Various parameters can be calculated for G and compared with the corresponding parameters for G-v to obtain a ranking of the vertices. The parameter examined in this paper is the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph. It is a key quantity in the study of processes such as a virus spreading on a network of people or computers, ideas spreading on social media, viral marketing, etc. The inverse of the largest eigenvalue is the epidemic threshold in a non-linear dynamical system model of a contagion spreading on a network. We define the spread centrality of a vertex v as the difference between the largest eigenvalues of G and G-v and compare it to other centrality measures. This is joint work with undergraduate students Vadym Cherniavskyi and Gabriel Dennis and our paper will appear in Involve: A Journal of Mathematics.

Thursday Apr 11: Jeffrey Suzuki (Brooklyn College)

Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm

Location: 330 Ingersoll Addition

Title: What's Natural About 2.71828...?

Abstract: Calculus was created to solve three main problems:  finding tangents; finding extreme values; and finding areas.  In the 1650s, Pierre de Fermat, a French lawyer and amateur mathematician, showed how all three problems could be solved using techniques we now recognize as calculus.  We'll take a close look at Fermat's work on finding the area under a curve, and use Fermat's approach to answer an often-baffling question:  What's natural about the natural log?

Tuesday, Apr 16, 2024: Philip Thibodeau (Brooklyn College)
Time: 12:30 - 2:00 pm
Location: 2405 Boylan Hall
Title: Measuring the Earth with Eratosthenes

This is a joint event with the Classical Society.