AMS-MAA-SIAM Gerald and Judith Porter Public Lecture

The Calculus of Friendship Steven Strogatz, Cornell University   Saturday, January 16, 2010, 3:00 PM- 4:00 PM Main Lecture Room, 2nd Floor, Moscone

In this public lecture, Professor Strogatz tells the story of his extraordinary connection with his high school calculus teacher, Mr. Don Joffray, as chronicled through more than thirty years of letters between them. What makes their relationship unique is that it is based almost entirely on a shared love of calculus. For them,  calculus is more than a branch of mathematics; it is a game they love playing together, a constant when all else is in  flux. The teacher goes from the prime of his career to retirement, competes in whitewater kayaking at the international level, and loses a son. The student matures from high school math geek to college professor, suffers the sudden death of a parent, and blunders into a marriage destined to fail. Yet through it all they take refuge in the haven of calculus. . . until a day comes when calculus is no longer enough. 

Like calculus itself, this lecture is an exploration of change. It's about the transformation that takes place in a student's heart, as he and his teacher reverse roles, as they age, as they are buffeted by life itself. It is intended for a general audience, and especially anyone whose life has been changed by a mentor. (It also includes some nifty calculus problems.)

See Professor Strogatz talk about The Calculus of Friendship here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9piYoYqIf3I

Steven Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, and is currently Director of the Center for Applied Mathematics.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Princeton in 1980, Strogatz spent two years as a Marshall Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. He did his doctoral work in applied mathematics at Harvard, and then stayed for three years as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow. From 1989 to 1994, Strogatz taught in the Department of Mathematics at MIT. He has received numerous awards for his research, teaching, and public service, including: a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (1990); MIT's highest teaching prize, the E. M. Baker Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1991); the J.P. and Mary Barger '50 Teaching Award (1997), the Robert '55 and Vanne '57 Cowie Teaching Award (2001), and the Tau Beta Pi Teaching Award (2006), all from Cornell's College of Engineering; and the Communications Award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (2007), a lifetime achievement award for the communication of mathematics to the general public. Strogatz joined the Cornell faculty in 1994. He is the author of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos (1994) and Sync (2003).  His most recent book, The Calculus of Friendship, was published in August 2009.

For more information, please visit his website at http://www.stevenstrogatz.com/.