Nationally-renowned mathematician Michael Starbird will present a lecture entitled “To Infinity and Beyond” on October 9 at 7:30 pm in Olin Hall 141 at Carleton College. Dr. Starbird, currently a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is known for his teaching skills and uncanny ability to make sophisticated mathematics accessible and enticing to the public. The lecture is free and designed for the general public.
Dr. Starbird teaches topology, which concerns abstract geometrical issues. Since joining the faculty of the University of Texas in 1974, he has accepted visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From 1989 to 1997, Starbird served as Associate Dean of the College of Natural Sciences. He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas and has received numerous awards, including the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence. Most recently, he won the Mathematical Association of America Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.
Dr. Starbird has produced two mathematics courses for The Teaching Company and has developed a course in higher-level mathematics for liberal arts students. He is co-author, with Professor Ed Burger of Williams College, of “The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking.” The book won a 2001 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award and was acclaimed by the American Mathematical Monthly as possibly the best math book—textbook or not—for non-mathematicians it had ever reviewed.
For more information and disability accommodations, contact the Carleton mathematics department at 507-646-4360.
