PUBLIC LECTURE: Mathematically challenging children

Abstract: Tom Lehrer notoriously advertised the view that mathematics is so simple that only a child can do it. Nevertheless, children, and especially gifted and talented children, can benefit greatly from being challenged and shown that they can in fact understand that which at first seemed impossible, even to them. This talk will be about the use of mathematical puzzles and challenges to develop mathematical thinking in able children from age twelve up to and beyond my own.

Profile: Dr Peter Neumann has been a Fellow and Praelector in Mathematics at The Queen's College, since 1966 and Lecturer (CUF) in the University of Oxford since 1967; visiting lecturer or visiting professor at various times at various universities in many parts of the world. Dr Neumann teaches all branches of pure mathematics to undergraduates. For the three academic years October 1995 to September 1998 he worked half-time in Staff Development to help with University Teacher Training within Oxford.

Other positions include: Chairman of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT); Vice-President of the British Society for History of Mathematics (BSHM); Editor of London Mathematical Society Monographs (published for the Society by OUP).

Dr Neumann's research contributions have ranged over a number of areas of group theory: Varieties of groups; finite permutation groups; infinite permutation groups; design of group-theoretic algorithms; soluble groups; quantitative topics in group theory; matrices over finite fields; miscellaneous questions in combinatorics, geometry and general group theory; history of group theory.

Dr Neumann's present research is concerned with a number of different areas: infinite permutation groups and automorphism groups of relational structures; design of algorithms for computing with matrix groups over finite fields; statistics of the distribution of matrices over finite fields; miscellaneous questions; history of group theory.

His visit to UWA and Perth is hosted by the Institute of Advanced Studies with the Schools of Mathematics and Statistics, and Computer Science and Software Engineering, as a Professor-at-Large, allowing him to roam widely across his range of intellectual interests for 4 weeks per year in 2004 and 2005.

ALL WELCOME. NO RESERVATION IS REQUIRED