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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, February 9, 2009 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Mario Livio

"Is God a Mathematician?"

ABSTRACT -- For centuries, mathematical theories have proven uncannily accurate at describing - and predicting - the physical world. What is it that gives mathematics such powers? The talk will thoroughly review this question. The talk will span such fields as mathematics, cosmology, physics, and the cognitive sciences, and will attempt to offer an accessible and lively account of the lives and thoughts of some of the greatest mathematicians and scientists in history, from Archimedes to Galileo and Descartes, and from Newton to Hilbert and Gödel, on up to the present day. The talk will also discuss another question with which mathematicians, philosophers, and neuroscientists have struggled for centuries: Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered?

SPEAKER -- Dr. Mario Livio is a Senior Astronomer and Head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the institute that conducts the scientific program of the Hubble Space Telescope. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics from Tel Aviv University in Israel and was a professor in the Physics Department at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology from 1981 to 1991, when he joined STScI. Dr. Livio has published hundreds of scientific papers and has received numerous awards for research and for excellence in teaching. He is the author of The Golden Ratio, a highly acclaimed book about mathematics and art for which he received the International Pythagoras Prize and the Peano Prize, and The Accelerating Universe. His latest book has just been released - Is God a Mathematician?




Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov