Distinguished Visitor Programme

Professor Frank Morgan

Distinguished Visitor

Frank Morgan is currently the Webster Atwell ’21 Professor of Mathematics at the Williams College and Vice President of the American Mathematical Society. His research is on geometric measure theory and minimal surfaces.

Professor Morgan is most famous for proving the double bubble conjecture on the minimum-surface-area enclosure of double bubbles. He is also well-known as the founder of SMALL, one of the largest and best known summer undergraduate mathematics research programs in the US. Professor Morgan has authored six books, including The Math Chat Book 2000, based on his live, call-in Math Chat TV show and Math Chat column.

More biographical information can be found at Professor Morgan’s website.


Events

Special Guest Lecture

Isoperimetric Problems
Part of the 2nd Singapore Mathematical Symposium

In Euclidean space, a round sphere solves the isoperimetric problem by providing the least-area way to enclose a given volume, as was proclaimed by the Ancient Greeks. Two thousand years later, we have been able to solve this problem in relatively few other spaces or Riemannian manifolds. The talk will include open questions and progress by undergraduates.

Audience

Undergraduates, graduate students and academics

Date

May 2 (Tuesday) 2013

Venue

Nanyang Technological University, SPMS, LT5 (map)

Registration Fee

Free

Teacher’s Workshop

Teaching Geometry by Guessing What Soap Bubbles Will Do
Before the acquisition of mathematical knowledge, one needs to interest and excite students in their learning with engaging questions. In this session, Professor Morgan will demonstrate on the use of a guessing contest about soap bubbles to teach some geometry. The presentation will include live demonstrations on soap bubbles.

Audience

Mathematics teachers

Date

May 4 (Wednesday) 2013 / 2.30 pm – 5.30 pm

Venue

Clementi Town Secondary School, AVA Theatrette, Level 4 (map)

Registration Fee

Free

Soap Bubbles and Current Research
One way to show students that mathematics is a living, growing discipline is to tell them about and even involve them in current research. We’ll give some examples. 

Audience

Mathematics teachers at High School level and current trainee teachers

Date

May 5 (Thursday) 2013 / 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm

Venue

National Institute of Education, 
LT7 (map1,map2)

Registration Fee

Free

Public Lecture

Soap Bubbles and Mathematics
Why are soap bubbles round? What about the shape of more complex soap bubble clusters? The show will include recent news, open questions, progress by undergraduates, demonstrations, explanations, and a little guessing contest with prizes.

Audience

General public and all children above 11 years old

Date

May 6 (Friday) 2013 / 3.30 pm – 5.30 pm

Venue

NUS High School of Maths and Science
Auditorium (map)

Registration Fee

Free

Registration

Online Registration for the two teacher’s workshop and the public lecture. 
Those who are interested in attending the special guest lecture should contact Dr Ng directly. 

Deadline for registration: April 27, 2011

Coordinator

Dr Ng Kah Loon
Tel: 65162751
Email: matngkl@nus.edu.sg