The College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Brigham Young University will present two unique math lectures during the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics Conference Friday and Saturday, March 18-19:
- Tony DeRose, senior scientist and leader of the research group at Pixar Animation Studios, will speak about “Math and the Movies” Friday at noon in the Varsity Theatre. DeRose was a major contributor to the Oscar-winning short film "Geri's Game." In 1999, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, and in 2006 he received a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for his work on surface representations. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Davis, and a doctorate in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
- David Kung, assistant professor of mathematics at St. Mary's College of Maryland, will speak about “How Math Made Modern Music Irrational” Friday at 10:45 a.m. in the Varsity Theatre. Kung enjoys playing violin with students as the concertmaster of the local COSMIC Symphony. He has authored many articles on topics in harmonic analysis and mathematics education and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2006 Teaching Award from the Maryland/Virginia/Washington, D.C., section of the Mathematics Association of America. He completed bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin in mathematics and physics.
For more information about the CURM Conference and speakers, visit curm.byu.edu/2011conference or contact Lynn Patten at (801) 422-4022 or e-mail lynn_patten@byu.edu .
Writer: Mel Gardner
