CCMS Colloquium: (Scott Taylor, Colby College, Maine)

Speaker:  Scott Taylor, Professor of Mathematics, Colby College, Maine

Title:  Sums and Symmetries

Abstract: Adding is one of the fundamental mathematical operations and we like it so much, we can’t help but add all kinds of things including knots, surfaces, and 3-dimensional spaces. Symmetry is also a fundamental mathematical concern. How well do sums and symmetries play together? In this talk, I’ll survey some of the ways in which, in low-dimensions, sums and symmetries are frenemies: sometimes it all works beautifully and other times, well, it’s complicated.

Bio: Scott is a geometric topologist who studies knots and 3-dimensional spaces. He is the producer of Sum Camp, a summer day camp for public elementary school children that uses the arts and math games to help instill a basic sense of numeracy. He is also the author of the forthcoming textbook “Introduction to Mathematics: Number, Space, and Structure” from the American Mathematical Society.