Oct 10
Math/Stats Colloquium: Francis Su, Harvey Mudd College
Title: The Game of Cycles
Abstract: The Game of Cycles, introduced in my book Mathematics for Human Flourishing, is played on a connected planar graph together with its bounded cells, and players take turns marking edges with arrows according to a sink-source rule that gives the game a topological flavor. I first started playing this game with Christopher Jackson, an incarcerated man who is a featured contributor to my book. With Chris, several other mathematicians and undergraduate students, we've been learning a lot about this game, and I'll share some of the things we discovered, including a surprising connection to a topological index theorem.
Francis Su is the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and a former president of the Mathematical Association of America. In 2013, he received the Haimo Award, a nationwide teaching prize for college math faculty, and in 2018 he won the Halmos-Ford writing award. His research in geometric combinatorics includes many papers co-authored with undergraduates. His work has been featured in Quanta Magazine, Wired, and the New York Times. His book Mathematics for Human Flourishing (2020), winner of the 2021 Euler Book Prize, has been translated into 8 languages. It offers an inclusive vision of what math is, who it's for, and why anyone should learn it.