- Series
- Stelson Lecture Series
- Time
- Monday, November 22, 2010 - 4:30pm for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
- Location
- Klaus 1116
- Speaker
- James Glimm – University of Stony Brook, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics
- Organizer
- Yingjie Liu
Please Note: This lecture is more for the general audience. Reception to follow in Klaus Atrium.
The changing status of knowledge from descriptive to analytic, from empirical to theoretical and from intuitive to mathematical has to be one of the most striking adventures of the human spirit. The changes often occur in small steps and can be lost from view. In this lecture we will review vignettes drawn from the speaker's personal knowledge that illustrate this transformation in thinking. Examples include not only the traditional areas of physics and engineering, but also newer topics, as in biology and medicine, in the social sciences, in commerce, and in the arts. We also review some of the forces driving these changes, which ultimately have a profound effect on the organization of human life.