Francis Su to Give H.T. Person Homecoming Lecture Sept. 25 at UW

People often see math as just a set of skills -- such as doing arithmetic or factoring a quadratic -- rather than as an opening to joy and wonder.

Yet, according to Francis Su, math is a deeply human enterprise that can meet basic human longings, such as for beauty and truth, and can build virtues that include persistence, creativity and an expectation of enchantment. Su asserts that such virtues are more important than skills, especially in an artificial intelligence era.

Su, the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, will address these topics in the H.T. Person Homecoming Lecture, titled “Mathematics for Human Flourishing,” Friday, Sept. 25, at 1:30 p.m. in the University of Wyoming Engineering Education and Research Building atrium.

The talk, hosted by the UW College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, is free and open to the public.

Su is a former president of the Mathematical Association of America and a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. In 2013, he received the Haimo Award, a nationwide teaching prize for college math faculty.

His work has been profiled in Quanta Magazine, Wired and The New York Times. His book, “Mathematics for Human Flourishing” (2020), offers an inclusive vision of what math is, who it’s for, and why anyone should learn it. The book was the winner of the 2021 Euler Book Prize.

For more information, go to www.uwyo.edu/ceps/calendar.html#event-details/8db457c3-039f-46f0-b753-ab901bfa8bf0.