Best-Selling Author Simon Singh Will Present Eighth Annual Baylor Lecture Series in Mathematics

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WACO, Texas (Oct. 16, 2015) –Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences will welcome Simon Singh, Ph.D., an award-winning author, producer and director for BBC in the United Kingdom, to address Baylor mathematics students at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, in Marrs McLean Science Room 101.
Singh holds a Ph.D. in particle physics from Cambridge University. He received a Member of the Most Excellence Order of the British Empire award from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 and won the Kelvin Medal from the Institute of Physics in 2008.
“Singh has a special and rare gift for taking a difficult concept or theory and explaining it to lay people,” said Lance Littlejohn, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of mathematics. “Mathematicians are sometimes their own worst enemies. Because our areas of expertise are so specialized, it can be very difficult to talk to another mathematician about our work even if this mathematician works in an adjacent area of research.”
The aim of this lecture series is to bring nationally and internationally recognized mathematicians who have a love for teaching and explaining mathematics.
Singh’s 4 p.m. lecture, titled “Happy Birthday Fermat’s Last Theorem,” will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the solution to Fermat’s Enigma, finally resolved after 350 years by Andrew Wiles and his student Richard Taylor in 1995. During his 6 p.m. lecture, “The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets,” geared to a younger and more general audience, he will talk about his latest book, which explores mathematical themes hidden in “The Simpsons.” There will be a reception for Singh between the lectures.
Faculty, students and people from the Waco community are encouraged to attend both lectures. Marrs McLean Science is located at 1214 S. Fourth St.
More information can be found on the Baylor Undergraduate Lecture Series in Mathematics website.
by Bethany Harper , student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
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