Colloquium Announcement
Department of Mathematics
West Virginia University
for
Friday, February 13, 1998,
at 3:30pm
in 324 Armstrong Hall
(Tea and cookies begin at 3:00 in coffee room.)
Professor Arthur M. Hobbs
Texas A & M Univ
Paul Erdos: Friend and Mentor
This talk is on a level of interest
to any person at a university.
Students are strongly encouraged to participate.
Abstract
Dr. Paul Erdos, the most prolific mathematician who ever lived and
one of the greatest, died last September 20 of a massive heart attack.
The speaker is one of Erdos's many co-authors and will share some
insights into the mind of "Uncle Paul." First he will give answers
to two common questions, "How did Erdos come to travel so much
and not have a permanent job?" and "Did Erdos do much
significant mathematics or was he merely a very prolific mathematician
with lots of co-authors?" The speaker will then describe Erdos
as a personal friend and as a friend to mathematicians everywhere.
Finally Erdos's mentoring of both the speaker and many other
mathematicians will be described. A clip from the film "N is a Number"
will be shown as an example of Erdos's lecturing style.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Arthur M. Hobbs is a professor in the Department
of Mathematics at Texas A&M University where he has been a faculty
member since 1971. he received his BS in mathematics from the
University of Michigan in 1962 and his PhD in mathematics (graph
theory, with Dr. William T. Tutte as advisor) from the University
of Waterloo in 1971. He is the author of about 40 papers in graph
theory and matroid theory, and he is co-author of a textbook on
linear algebra. His recent research has been on packings and
coverings of graphs and matroids by trees, and their applications.
He co-authored four papers with Dr. Erdos.
The information on the future (and past) Colloquia can be also found on web at the
address:
http://www.math.wvu.edu/homepages/kcies/colloquium.html