Serge Lang was a frequent visitor to our department. He spent many summers in Berkeley and often gave lectures to the Math Undergraduate Student Association (MUSA) after students returned to campus at the end of August. Each year from 1999 to 2005, Serge gave a MUSA lecture at 4PM on the first day of classes. MUSA and the Department of Mathematics continue the tradition by hosting a Serge Lang Undergraduate Lecture each fall (or occasionally spring).
The 2024 Serge Lang Undergraduate Lecture will be given on Wednesday October 9th by Professor Stefan Steinerberger - University of Washington
Banatao Auditorium - Sutardja Dai Hall, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Title: Growth models in the plane
Abstract. We'll study the growth of (two-dimensional) things. Think about lichen growing on a tree, it tends to be sort of round. Another fun example is electricity propagating through wood, it tends to be sort of fractal. A famous and still very mysterious model is called DLA: it forms the most beautiful fractal patterns (pictures will be provided). Despite this, DLA is actually fairly poorly understood and we will quickly survey the existing ideas, unfortunately there aren't very many. We will then discuss a new type of growth model that behaves similarly and which can be precisely analyzed. No prior knowledge is necessary and there will be lots of pictures and open problems!
Bio: Stefan Steinerberger is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington, Seattle. He received his undergraduate degree from the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria and earned his PhD from the University of Bonn. He had postdoctoral positions at Bonn and Yale and likes problems in mathematical analysis but also has dabbled in probability theory, spectral theory, applied mathematics, economics and one very fun project in psychology. His research has been supported by the NSF, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Institute of New Economic Thinking.
Past Serge Lang Undergraduate Lecturers
2024-25 Stefan Steinerberger
2023-24 Ken Ono
2022-23 Jeffrey Lagarias
2021-22 Stephon Alexander
2020-21 Steven Strogatz
2019-20 Persi Diaconis
2018-19 Helene Barcelo
2017-18 Keith Devlin
2016-17 Ravi Vakil
2015-16 Brian Conrad
2014-15 Tony DeRose
2013-14 Bjorn Poonen
2012-13 John Baez
2011-12 Jordan Ellenberg
2010-11 Andrew Granville
2009-10 Benedict H. (Dick) Gross
2008-09 Peter W. Jones
2007-08 John H. Conway
2006-07 William Stein