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As part of the Jones Faculty Lecture series, Chawne Kimber, associate professor of mathematics, will present “A Mathematical Look at Quilts and Colorings” 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10 in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104.
The lecture is sponsored by the Thomas Roy and Lura Forest Jones Faculty Lecture and Awards Fund, established in 1966 to recognize superior teaching and scholarship at Lafayette. The event is free and open to the public.
Kimber’s lecture will focus on three recent problems in mathematics and examine their “solutions” with two goals. The first goal is to understand what a “problem” is and to see examples of life-cycles of problems. The second goal is to get some sense of what it means to “solve” a problem, which is drastically different in these three cases.
“Our examples include mathematical quilts, colorings, and formal infinities,” says Kimber. “One of these problems is unsolved, one is believed to be solved but some mathematicians aren’t ready to accept it, and it is known that the other is essentially ‘unsolvable.’”
Kimber stresses that audience members will not need a background in mathematics to enjoy the lecture, as she will provide all the necessary information.
“I’d like folks to get a sense of what mathematical scholarship is and what it means to participate in this enterprise,” she says.
Kimber, who has given presentations throughout the United States, has shared her research in publications such as Algebra Universalis, Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal, and Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo. She is helping organize the 2007 Mathematics of Social Justice Workshop to be held June 20-23 at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Kimber taught a Values and Science/Technology course in which students helped low-income Easton residents prepare tax forms. She also participated in the Mathematical Adventures at Lafayette sessions, in which faculty hosted teachers and honors students from Easton Area High School for enrichment workshops.
A past recipient of the Excellence in Diversity Education Award, Kimber earned her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. She is the former faculty adviser of the McKelvy Scholars program and helped establish the Reeder Fellows program. Her academic interests include algebra and topology.