Professor Frank Morgan
Distinguished Visitor
Frank Morgan is currently the Webster Atwell ’21 Professor of Mathematics at the Williams College and Vice President of the American Mathematical Society. His research is on geometric measure theory and minimal surfaces.
Professor Morgan is most famous for proving the double bubble conjecture on the minimum-surface-area enclosure of double bubbles. He is also well-known as the founder of SMALL, one of the largest and best known summer undergraduate mathematics research programs in the US. Professor Morgan has authored six books, including The Math Chat Book 2000, based on his live, call-in Math Chat TV show and Math Chat column.
More biographical information can be found at Professor Morgan’s website.
Events
Special Guest Lecture
Isoperimetric Problems
Part of the 2nd Singapore Mathematical Symposium
In Euclidean space, a round sphere solves the isoperimetric problem by providing the least-area way to enclose a given volume, as was proclaimed by the Ancient Greeks. Two thousand years later, we have been able to solve this problem in relatively few other spaces or Riemannian manifolds. The talk will include open questions and progress by undergraduates.
Audience
Undergraduates, graduate students and academics
Date
May 2 (Tuesday) 2013
Venue
Nanyang Technological University, SPMS, LT5 (map)
Registration Fee
Free
Teacher’s Workshop
Teaching Geometry by Guessing What Soap Bubbles Will Do
Before the acquisition of mathematical knowledge, one needs to interest and excite students in their learning with engaging questions. In this session, Professor Morgan will demonstrate on the use of a guessing contest about soap bubbles to teach some geometry. The presentation will include live demonstrations on soap bubbles.
Audience
Mathematics teachers
Date
May 4 (Wednesday) 2013 / 2.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Venue
Clementi Town Secondary School, AVA Theatrette, Level 4 (map)
Registration Fee
Free
Soap Bubbles and Current Research
One way to show students that mathematics is a living, growing discipline is to tell them about and even involve them in current research. We’ll give some examples.
Audience
Mathematics teachers at High School level and current trainee teachers
Date
May 5 (Thursday) 2013 / 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Registration Fee
Free
Public Lecture
Soap Bubbles and Mathematics
Why are soap bubbles round? What about the shape of more complex soap bubble clusters? The show will include recent news, open questions, progress by undergraduates, demonstrations, explanations, and a little guessing contest with prizes.
Audience
General public and all children above 11 years old
Date
May 6 (Friday) 2013 / 3.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Venue
NUS High School of Maths and Science
Auditorium (map)
Registration Fee
Free
Registration
Online Registration for the two teacher’s workshop and the public lecture.
Those who are interested in attending the special guest lecture should contact Dr Ng directly.
Deadline for registration: April 27, 2011
Coordinator
Dr Ng Kah Loon
Tel: 65162751
Email: matngkl@nus.edu.sg