Knots and Numbers

The Department of Mathmatics

invites you to attend a scientific lecture entitled:

Knots and Numbers
 

Prof.  Haynes Miller

Tuesday 2-5-2023 at 14:40-15:30

S. Abdelhadi 380

Tangle a length of string. Can you untangle it now without letting go of its ends? How many different "knotted" strings are there? These are the questions addressed in the mathematical discipline of "Knot Theory." In this talk, Prof. Haynes Miller will present an overview of the history of this subject and will explore a classification of rational tangles—building blocks that occur in a program pursued by the late John Conway to classify knots. The lecture will end with a proof by square dance.

Brief Bio:

Haynes Miller has been a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1986. With a research focus on algebraic topology, Prof. Miller has directed more than thirty PhD theses. He has also served as an editor for eleven disciplinary journals, including as the managing editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Association. In 2005, he was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, the highest teaching honor at MIT. He was the 2006 recipient of the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award. He created the MIT Mathlets, a collection of computer-based mathematical manipulatives, as well as OLSUME, the ongoing Online Seminar on Undergraduate Mathematics Education. He is a core faculty supporter of the MIT-Haiti Initiative, a project that promotes active learning and the use of Haitian Creole, Haitians’ native language, in schools instead of French. Miller was a local organizer of the Third Annual Gathering for Scientists for Palestine at MIT in January 2020 and is now involved with the Palestinian Student Research Program.