Invited Speakers
Carrie Diaz Eaton
Bates College
Battles Lecture: A year of revising our model
Saturday June 5, 2021, 10:00 AM
Abstract: In early 2020, the way we conducted education in-person changed fundamentally in response to COVID-19 as we reinvented higher education online, adopting new flexible grading policies, recording lectures, and using open educational resources. In June of 2020, the way we thought about diversity and justice changed fundamentally in response to #GeorgeFloyd, as we grappled with it in the streets in protest and in the classrooms with #ShutdownAcademia and #ShutdownSTEM. Or did it? Online education has a long history, as does racial justice movements on and off social media. What changed is that we became aware over the last year that there were other ways that math could be, and there were other experiences besides our own that held truth. We became aware that there were friends, colleagues, and students that were suffering, and we just hadn’t heard them before. Together we will explore how these issues are manifest in our mathematics community, and how we can take the next steps to support the future of our profession.
Bio: Dr. Carrie Diaz Eaton is an Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies at Bates College. She is a 2012 MAA Project NExT Fellow, a 2018 Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute Fellow, and in 2020 was awarded the Society for Mathematical Biology John Jungck Excellence in Education Prize. Dr. Diaz Eaton currently serves as the Chair for the Committee for Minority Participation in Mathematics for the Mathematical Association of America [MAA], on the Editorial Boards of PRIMUS and CourseSource, and is an MAA Values Leader. In 2013, she co-founded QUBES (qubeshub.org) which provides an online collaboration community and cyberinfrastructure for curricular reform at the interface of mathematics and biology.
Dr. Diaz Eaton is also a proud 1st generation Latinx. Her father is from Peru. She is also a mother. Dr. Diaz Eaton values the complex interplay at the intersection of her identities, professional activism in STEM education, and her research.
James Sellers
University of Minnesota Duluth
Revisiting What Euler and the Bernoullis Knew About Convergent Infinite Series
Saturday June 5, 2021, 11:30 AM
Abstract: All too often in first-year calculus classes, conversations about infinite series stop with discussions about convergence or divergence. Such interactions are, unfortunately, not often illuminating or intriguing. Interestingly enough, Jacob and Johann Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler(and their contemporaries in the early 18th century) knew quite a bit about how to find the *exact* values of numerous families of convergent infinite series. In this talk, I will show two sets of *exact* results in this vein. The talk will be accessible to anyone interested in mathematics.
Bio: Dr. James Sellers received his Ph.D. from Penn State University in 1992. After receiving his PhD, he taught at Cedarville University in Ohio for nine years before returning to his alma mater in 2001 to serve as a faculty member and the director of the undergraduate program in mathematics. In 2008, James served as a Visiting Fellow of the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, and in 2012 he was privileged to be a Fulbright scholar, teaching and completing research at the Johannes Kepler University and the Research Institute for Symbolic Computation in Linz, Austria. Currently, James has over 100 papers listed in Mathematical Reviews, and he has won numerous awards for both his teaching and his service to the mathematical community. In February 2018, James turned his attention to a new and very exciting opportunity – serving as the Secretary of the MAA! And in August 2019, he moved to the University of Minnesota Duluth to serve as professor and head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics there.
Carl Pomerance
Dartmouth College
Is 73 the best number?
Saturday June 5, 2021, 3:00 PM
Abstract: According to Sheldon Cooper, the often annoying lead character in the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory, 73 is the best number. And he's eager to tell you why. But is it really? In joint work with Chris Spicer (Morningside College in Iowa), we show Sheldon just may be right.
Bio: Dr. Carl Pomerance graduated from Brown University and later received his Ph.D. from Harvard University with a dissertation proving that any odd perfect number has at least seven distinct prime factors. He joined the faculty at the University of Georgia, becoming full professor in 1982. He subsequently worked at Lucent Technologies for a number of years, and then became a Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College. He is a former MAA Polya Lecturer and recipient of the MAA Haimo national teaching award. He is enjoying his retirement from Dartmouth College.