Colloquium

Title: How do zebrafish get their stripes — or spots? Abstract: Many natural and social systems involve individual agents coming together to create group dynamics, whether the agents are drivers […]

Title: Groups, Graphs and Trees Abstract: What do we mean by the geometry of a group? Groups seem like very abstract objects when we first study them, and it's natural […]

Title: Trace Ideals and Endomorphism Rings Abstract: In many branches of mathematics, the full set of "functions" between two objects exhibits remarkable structure; it often forms a group and in some special cases it forms a ring. In this talk, we will discuss this phenomenon in Commutative Algebra. In particular, we will talk about the […]

Title: Puzzling Permutations Abstract: Permutations are one of the most fundamental notions in mathematics. In this talk, we will discuss a visual representation of permutations and introduce some games one can play to help "see" different properties. These puzzling games can be used to provide insight into deeper mathematical content as well. Time permitting, we […]

Title: Topic Models, Methods, and Medicine Speaker: Prof. Jamie Haddock (Harvey Mudd College) Abstract: There is currently an unprecedented demand for efficient, quantitative, and interpretable methods to study large-scale (often multi-modal) data. One key area of interest is that of topic modeling, which seeks to automatically learn latent trends or topics of complex data sets, […]

Title: Quantitative Approaches to Social Justice Prof. Chad Topaz (he/him/his) Co-Founder and Executive Director of Research, QSIDE Institute Professor of Mathematics, Williams College Abstract: Civil rights leader, educator, and investigative journalist Ida B. Wells said that "the way to right wrongs is to shine the light of truth upon them." This talk will demonstrate how […]

Title: Virtual Trivalent Spatial Graphs and Virtual Niebrzydowski Algebras Speaker: Prof. Sherilyn Tamagawa Visiting Assistant Professor Pomona College Abstract: If you were given two tangled up circles of string, could you untangle one to look like the other without cutting and reattaching the string? How could you tell? Knot theory explores answers to these questions. In this […]

Title: Interrupted Time Series Models for Assessing Complex Health Care Interventions Maricela Cruz, PhD Assistant Investigator Biostatistics Unit Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Abstract:  Assessing the impact of complex interventions on measurable health outcomes is a growing concern in health care and health policy. According to the 2018 Annual Review of Public Health, interrupted time […]

Title: What we talk about when we talk about math Speaker: Prof. Lillian Pierce, Nicholas J. and Theresa M. Leonardy Professor of Mathematics at Duke University Abstract: In 1864, the mathematician J. J. Sylvester wrote: May not Music be described as the Mathematics of the sense, Mathematics as Music of the reason?...Thus the musician feels […]

Panelists: Tatiana Bradley, Michelle Goodwin, Isys Johnson, John Lentfer, and Matthew vonAllmen We will have a panel discussion with graduates from the Claremont Consortium who have taken different pathways after graduation. After introductions, there will be time for open questions from the audience. Afterward, breakout rooms will be open for a casual discussion with the panelists and […]

Title: Clouds and Climate Prof. Tapio Schneider Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering California Institute of Technology Abstract: Clouds are an essential regulator of climate. They cool Earth on average by 5 degrees centigrade. Yet despite their importance, the response of clouds to climate change is very uncertain. This is especially true […]

Title: Topological descriptions of protein folding Speaker:  Prof. Helen Wong, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Claremont-McKenna College. Abstract: Knotting in proteins was once considered exceedingly rare. However, systematic analyses of solved protein structures over the last two decades have demonstrated the existence of many deeply knotted proteins, and researchers now hypothesize that the knotting presents some […]