Mathematics Colloquium

1st part of talk will be from 2:30-3:30 pm, then break for tea in Sloan 351 3:30-4:00 pm and 2nd part of talk will be from 4:00-5:00 pm back in Sloan 151 (note either hour could be listened to without the other).

This is not a mathematics talk but it is a talk for mathematicians. Too often, we think of historical mathematicians as only names assigned to theorems. With vignettes and anecdotes, I'll convince you they were also human beings and that, as the Chinese say, "May you live in interesting times" really is a curse. This talk will focus on the lives of 22 mathematicians including Gauss, Poincare, von Neumann, Loewner, Laundau and Noether. I gave an earlier talk "Tales of our Forefathers" several years ago. It is not assumed listeners heard that earlier talk.  For those who want to hear that talk (or hear it again), it will be given on Monday, March 6 (see http://www.caltech.edu/content/special-mathematics-lecture).