2017-02-07_Andrews_TheManWhoKnowInfinity.txt

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Title: The Man Who Knew Infinity: the Movie, the Man, and the Mathematics

Speaker: Prof. George E. Andrews (Pennsylvania State University)

Time and Location: Tuesday, February 7, 2017, 11 a.m.;
                   RISC Seminarroom, Hagenberg pond.


In the spring of last year, the motion picture, The Man Who Knew
Infinity, was released. It is now available on DVD. The movie tells
the life story of the Indian genius, Ramanujan. In this talk, I hope
to start with the trailer from the movie. Then I shall provide some
discussion of Ramanujan's life. Finally I hope to give a glimpse of
his mathematics from the celebrated Lost Notebook. I will especially
try to highlight aspects where computer algebra leads us to the
solution of some of Ramanujan's mysteries while still leaving us in
the dark concerning how he came to his discoveries.

Note by Peter Paule: The talk is directed to a general mathematical
audience; students are particularly welcome! - Professor Andrews was
President (2009-2010) of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). He
is a world-renowned expert on Ramanujan's work. For instance, in 1977
he went to Cambridge to look for historic works in the Wren Library of
Trinity College. There he found pages of mathematical work in
Srinivasa Ramanujan's own handwriting. This discovery led to Andrews'
spending thirty years on the hundreds of results in what he called
Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook. Andrews has also been involved in computer
algebra and teaching, has given many lectures all over the world, was
on the committee that wrote problems for the Putnam Exam, and has
served on the editorial boards of numerous mathematical journals.
Andrews is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently
Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics at The Pennsylvania State
University. Andrews is a Fellow of the AMS. - The movie "The Man Who
Knew Infinity" was also released in German, "Die Poesie des
Unendlichen"; actors: Jeremy Irons, Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire").