5/2 Upcoming Events: Alumni Colloquium, Department Awards Ceremony
Author: Anthony Palaszewski
Friday, May 2nd, 2025 will see the Mathematics Department hosting two special events, highlighted below.
Alumni Colloquium: Al Erisman – “Mathematics as a Liberal Art”
Al Erisman will be presenting this year’s Alumni Colloquium on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 at 3:20PM CDT.
After completing his PhD in Applied Mathematics at Iowa State University in 1969, Dr. Erisman joined the mathematics research staff at the Boeing Company in Seattle, WA. His research work was in the field of sparse matrix computation. In 1990 he was named Director of Technology where he oversaw a research team of 250 mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and engineers addressing leading edge applied research for the company. He was named one of the eleven inaugural Senior Technical Fellows of The Boeing Company in 1990. He is co-author of Direct Methods for Sparse Matrices with John Reid and Iain Duff, Oxford University Press (1986, second edition 2017). After retiring from Boeing in 2001, he has been editor of Ethix Magazine, and executive in residence in the School of Business at Seattle Pacific University. He has authored and edited numerous books and articles, and currently working on A Mathematical Way of Seeing: Mathematics as a Liberal Art. Details of his talk can be found below.
Mathematics is often thought to be confined to a beautiful and rigorous course of study. It is also of vital importance to the natural sciences, as captured in the title of the famous 1959 paper, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Physical Sciences.” What should mathematics mean for those not studying mathematics or the sciences? In this talk we will explore how mathematics opens up insight for thinking about relationships, policy issues, the purpose of business, and many areas that seem to have little to do with numbers. We will illustrate this with everyday examples drawing on simple to advanced mathematics, but requiring no mathematical expertise.
This talk will be livestreamed – a link can be found here.
Department Awards Ceremony
The Mathematics Department will be hosting its annual Awards Ceremony on Friday, May 2nd, 2025 at 4:30PM CDT, following the Alumni Colloquium.
The ceremony will highlight the achievements of Mathematics undergraduate & graduate students, as well as celebrate faculty members’ efforts throughout the year.
The event will be livestreamed – a link can be found here.
Below are stories regarding some of our faculty’s awards throughout the year!
Pablo Raúl Stinga Receives Martin Luther King Jr. Advancing One Community Award