Mathematics Awareness Month
Public Lecture Series

Mathematics Awareness Month is held each year in April. Its goal is to increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. To that end Cornell's Department of Mathematics sponsors an annual public lecture in keeping with each year's theme. To learn more about Mathematics Awareness Month, its history and previous years' themes, visit www.mathaware.org.

Mathematics and Climate

Mathematicians and scientists around the globe are focused on one of the most important challenges of our time — global climate change. In celebration of Mathematics Awareness Month, four panelists will give short talks, followed by questions and discussion. [Poster]

• When: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 5:00 PM
• Where: 228 Malott Hall (Bache Auditorium)

Introduction — Mary Lou Zeeman, Cornell University and Bowdoin College

One of the most powerful features of mathematics is that it can unify ideas from a wide variety of disciplines. Understanding this allows us to harness math to dive deeper into scientific mysteries. For example, we will look at the role of feedback loops in our global climate.

Uncertainty and Climate Prediction — Christopher Danforth, University of Vermont

As advances in data assimilation continue to improve our estimate of the state of the Earth's atmosphere at any given time, modeling errors represent an increasingly important component of forecast uncertainty. In this talk, we describe mathematical efforts to characterize deficiencies in global climate models, using a simple fluid experiment and a weather forecast model with one billion variables as examples.

Curriculum on Climate in the Classroom — Thomas Pfaff, Ithaca College

Examples will be provided on how to incorporate issues surrounding the climate in the mathematics classroom. The examples will be for calculus I, statistics, and independent study projects. In calculus I, we use curve fitting techniques on real data to get meaningful functions to use for examples. Statistics classes can take advantage of regional climate models for data to incorporate into exercises and examples. The same data from climate simulations can be used for independent study projects to investigate regional climate change impacts in consultation with area industries that are impacted by climate change.

Prediction in the Face of Scientific Uncertainty: The Problem of Global Climate Change — Zellman Warhaft, Cornell University

Global climate change presents the gravest of problems, yet predicting its course and determining how to respond also presents great difficulties. I will discuss the problem of predicting future energy use, global temperatures, and non fossil fuel power requirements. I will also discuss how the science, mathematics, and engineering are related to the economic and social aspects of climate change.

Mary Lou Zeeman	Christopher Danforth	Thomas Pfaff	Zellman Warhaft

Previous Lectures in the Series

• Michael A. Jones, Montclair State University:
  What a Difference a Procedure Makes: Scoring Rules in Politics and Sports (2008)
• David Field, Cornell University:
  Unraveling the Knot of our Sensory Experience (2007)
• Graeme Bailey, Cornell University:
  Keeping and Sharing Secrets (2006)
• John Hubbard, Cornell University:
  Order and Chaos in the Solar System (2005)
• Steven Strogatz, Cornell University:
  Sync (2004)
• Warwick Tucker, Cornell University:
  Using a Computer to do Rigorous Mathematics (2002)
• Robert Connelly, Cornell University:
  How to Unfold a Carpenter's Rule in the Plane (2001)
• John Hubbard, Cornell University:
  Chaos, Complication and Control (2000)

Last modified:April 1, 2009