April is Math Awareness Month in the United States, and the Hillsdale College Department of Mathematics will recognize the occasion by hosting mathematics professor John Bourke on campus.
Bourke’s lecture will be April 9, at 4 p.m. in the Mossey Library Heritage Room.
Bourke recently received his doctorate in mathematics from Dartmouth College. He currently is a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Bourke’s speech is titled “Flirting with Contradiction” and, according to Bourke, will cover a few major classical results in mathematics, from number theory and geometry in particular.
Bourke said he will demonstrate how these ideas have forced mathematicians to alter their understanding of the very nature of the objects they study.
Bourke’s visit is being coordinated by Hillsdale Associate Professor of Mathematics David Murphy, who formerly worked at Kalamazoo College and actually held the same position Bourke currently does.
Due to this and other connections, Murphy reached out to Bourke, and is excited that he will be speaking on campus.
“It is important to get a better appreciation of how the many disciplines that we study fit together: that there is the interweaving of philosophical questions with mathematical ones,” Murphy said.
Bourke said he will definitely discuss the philosophy of mathematics in the talk, and that he hopes students enjoy seeing a mix of familiar and less familiar ideas and connections between them.
– Shaun Lichti