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Kieval Lecture

Join us for the 81st Kieval Lecture

Join us for the 81st Kieval Lecture

Dr. Michael Dorff, Professor of Mathematics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, will deliver the 81st Harry S. Kieval Lecture at Cal Poly Humboldt on Thursday, October 3rd.  The lecture will be at 7:00 p.m. in Room 135 of the Science-B Building on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus.  The public is welcome to this free lecture, which is geared toward a general audience. 

Title: How Mathematics is Making Hollywood Movies Better

Abstract: What’s your favorite movie? Star Wars? Avatar? The Avengers? Frozen? What do these and all the highest-earning Hollywood movies have in common? Mathematics! You probably didn’t think about it while watching these movies, but math was used to help make them. In this presentation, we will discuss how math is being used to create better and more realistic movies. Along the way, we will discuss some specific movies and the mathematics behind them. We will include examples from Disney’s 2013 movie Frozen (how to use math to create realistic-looking snow) to Pixar’s 2004 movie The Incredibles (how to use math to make an animated character move faster). Come and join us and get a better appreciation of mathematics and movies.

About the Speaker:
Michael Dorff is a past President of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and a professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University. He earned his Ph.D from the University of Kentucky. His research is in complex analysis, and he is interested in promoting mathematics to the general public, in math careers in industry, and in undergraduate research. He has given over 500 math talks and published over 80 articles about math research and education. He co-founded PIC Math (Preparation for Industrial Careers in the Mathematical Sciences) and founded CURM (Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics). He served as the Executive Director of TPSE (Transforming Post-Secondary Education) Math. He is a Fellow of the AMS, a CUR Fellow (Council on Undergraduate Research), and a Fulbright Scholar in Poland. He is married with 5 daughters. In his free time, he enjoys reading, writing, running, and traveling (he has traveled to 49 U.S. states and about 70 countries).

For more information, click on Kieval_Lecture_Flyer_F24

Previous lecturers in this series

  • Edray Goins (details) Fall 2023 (Pomona College)
  • Glen Van Brummelen (details) Spring 2023 (Trinity Western University) 
  • Pamela E. Harris (details) Fall 2022 (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee)
  • Jesus De Loera (video) Spring 2022 (UC Davis)
  • Stephen Trettel (video) Fall 2021 (Stanford University)
  • Richard Schwartz (details) Spring 2020 (Brown University)
  • Zvezdelina Stankova (details) Fall 2019 (UC Berkeley)
  • Frank Farris (details) Spring 2019 (Santa Clara University)
  • Alon Amit (details) Fall 2018 (Origami Logic)
  • Gigliola Staffilani (details) Spring 2018 (MIT)
  • Ken Ono (details) Fall 2017 (Emory University)
  • Francis Su (details) Spring 2017 (Harvey Mudd College)
  • Erica Flapan (details) Fall 2016 (Pomona College)
  • Bernd  Sturmfels (details) Spring 2016 (University of California at Berkeley)
  • Federico Ardila (details) Fall 2015 (San Francisco State University)
  • Margot Gerritsen (details) Spring 2015 (Stanford University)
  • Benson Farb (details) Fall 2014 (University of Chicago)
  • Tim Chartier (details) Spring 2014 (Davidson College North Carolina)
  • Alan Schoenfeld (details) Fall 2013 (University of California at Berkeley)
  • Abigail Thompson (details) Spring 2013 (University of California at Davis)
  • Robert Bryant (details) Fall 2012 (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute)
  • William G. McCallum (details) Spring 2012 (University of Arizona)
  • Kenneth Ribet (details) Fall 2011 (University of California at Berkeley)
  • David Pengelley (details) Spring 2011 (New Mexico State University)
  • Alice Silverberg (details) Fall 2010 (University of California at Irvine)
  • Robert J. Lang (details) Spring 2010 
  • Kenneth Golden (details) Fall 2009 (University of Utah)
  • Tony DeRose (details) Spring 2009 (Pixar Studios)
  • Underwood Dudley (details) Fall 2008 (DePauw University)
  • Donald Albers (details) Spring 2008 (Mathematical Assoc of America Books)
  • C. Edward Sandifer (details) Fall 2007 (Western Connecticut State University)
  • Melanie Wood (details) Spring 2007 (Princeton University)
  • Jerald Marsden (details) Fall 2006 (California Institute of Technology)
  • Deborah Ball (details) Spring 2006 (University of Michigan)
  • Majorie Senechal (details) Fall 2005 (Smith College)
  • Joe Gallian (details) Spring 2005 (University of Minnesota Duluth)
  • Jennifer Quinn (details) Fall 2004 (Occidental College)
  • John Conway (details) Spring 2004 (Princeton University)
  • Persi Diaconis (details) Fall 2003, (Stanford University)
  • Hyman Bass (details) Spring 2003 (U. of Michigan)
  • Ann E.Watkins (details) Fall, 2002 (CSU Northridge)
  • Ed Burger (details) Spring, 2002 (Williams  College)
  • Michael E. Moody (details) Fall, 2001 (Harvey Mudd College)
  • Richard Tapia (details) Spring, 2001 (Rice University)
  • Noam D. Elkies (details) Fall, 2000 (Harvard University)
  • Victor Katz (details) Spring, 2000 (University of the District of Columbia)
  • Arthur Benjamin (details) Fall, 1999 (Harvey Mudd College)
  • Thomas Banchoff (details) Spring, 1999 (Brown University)
  • Frank Giordano (details) Fall, 1998 (COMAP)
  • Robert L. Devaney (details) Spring, 1998 (Boston University)
  • Sherman Stein (details) Fall, 1997 (UC Davis)
  • Ron Graham (details) Spring, 1997
  • David Hoffman (details) Fall, 1996 (MSRI, Berkeley)
  • Doris Schattschneider (details) Spring, 1996 (Moravian College)
  • Herbert Keller (details) Fall, 1995 (Cal. Inst. of Technology)
  • Keith J. Devlin Spring, 1995 (Saint Mary's College)
  • Deb Hughes Hallett (Harvard) and Jerry Uhl  (U of Ill.) Fall, 1994
  • Gil Strang Spring, 1994(MIT)
  • Carlos Castillo-Chavez Fall, 1993 (Cornell)
  • Judith Grabiner (details) Spring, 1993 (Pitzer College).
  • Judith Tanur (details) Fall, 1992 (SUNY, Stony Brook)
  • Margaret Cozzins Spring, 1992 (Northeastern U.)
  • Saunders MacLane Fall, 1991 (Univ. of Chicago)
  • Branko Grunbaum Spring, 1991 (Univ. of Washington)
  • Robert Moses Fall, 1990
  • George Dantzig Spring, 1990 (Stanford Univ.) 
  • Reuben Hersh Fall, 1989 (Univ. of NM)
  • Ralph Boas Spring, 1989 (Northwestern Univ.)
  • Leon Henkin Fall, 1988 (U.C., Berk.)
  • Mary Ellen Rudin Spring, 1988(Univ. of Wisconsin)
  • Constance Reid Fall, 1987
  • Kenneth Arrow Spring, 1987 (Stanford Univ.)
  • Peter Hilton Fall, 1986 (SUNY, Binghamton)
  • Gerard Debreu Spring, 1986 (U.C.,Berk.)
  • Raymond Smullyan Fall, 1985 (Ind. U.)
  • Paul Halmos Spring, 1985 (Univ.of Santa Clara)
  • Richard Hamming Winter, 1985 (Naval Postgrad.)
  • Victor Klee Spring, 1984 (Univ. of Washington)
  • Ivan Niven Fall, 1983 (Univ. of Oregon)
  • Ronald Graham Spring, 1983 (Bell Labs)