Mathematics People

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Mathematics People NEWS Mathematics People Award for Mentorship of Undergrad- 2019 AWM Awards uate Women in Mathematics “for her exceptional track record of support, The Association for Women in Mathematics presented guidance, unvarnished feedback, several awards at the Joint Mathematics Meetings held in and inspiration.” The prize citation Baltimore, Maryland, in January 2019. notes that “Weekes is a founding JACQUELINE DEWAR of Loyola Mary- director and has offered a strong mount University in Los Angeles has shaping hand in the deeply impact- been named the recipient of the 2019 ful MSRI-UP [Mathematical Sciences Louise Hay Award for Contributions Suzanne Weekes Research Institute Undergraduate to Mathematics Education “in rec- Program] program, devoted to ‘cul- ognition of her many achievements tivating heretofore untapped mathematical talent’ with as a professor, a leader in outreach, a focus on communities traditionally underrepresented and a contributor to the scholarship in mathematics. Over her tenure at MSRI-UP, over eighty of teaching and learning.” She has women, including more than fifty women of color, have Jacqueline Dewar been an advocate for active learning, passed through the program, with the majority continuing initiated a biomathematics program, to graduate programs after college.” She received her PhD and developed courses in computer literacy, the history of in mathematics and scientific computing from the Univer- women in mathematics, and mathematics in civic engage- sity of Michigan in 1995. Her research involves dynamic ment. She was a cofounder of the Math Science Interchange materials, numerical methods, and computational fluid in Los Angeles, which still provides an annual career day, dynamics. She chairs the Education Committee of the “Expanding Your Horizons—LA”, for K–12 students and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). teachers. Thousands of girls and their teachers have at- KATHRYN Mann of Brown Uni- tended these events. She continues to lead workshops and versity has been awarded the 2019 train other leaders. Dewar tells the Notices: “My interest in Joan and Joseph Birman Research mathematics goes back to my wonderful freshman algebra Prize in Topology and Geometry teacher, Mr. Kramer, followed by being selected as one of “for breakthrough work in the the- forty students (thirty-six boys and four girls) to attend a ory of dynamics of group actions on four-week NSF summer program for talented high school manifolds.” The prize citation reads: students at St. Louis University. That hooked me on math- “Mann uses a broad array of mathe- ematics! As a university faculty member for forty years, matical tools to obtain results at the some of the most eye-opening experiences I have had in Kathryn Mann juncture of topology, group theory, mathematics education occurred inside K–12 schools doing geometry, and dynamics, and she things like talking about math careers, coaching junior high finds new connections between them. She has discovered students for math competitions, leading a ‘math for girls’ new phenomena, built general theory, and has solved after-school program, and visiting the classrooms of my long-open problems. As an example, in a solo paper she former students who became K–12 teachers, and conversing introduced a new method to study the topology of the with them, professional to professional. I heard from the space of surface group representations in the space of teachers about their successes and the challenges they faced. orientation-preserving circle homeomorphisms and to My wish is that many more of us in the higher education prove a rigidity result about geometric such representa- mathematics community could find ways to have K–12 tions. Building on this paper, jointly with M. Wolff, Mann mathematics education experiences.” Outside of her pro- proved that conversely this rigidity property characterizes fessional work, Dewar loves gardening and swing dancing. the geometric surface group actions on the circle. A leading SUZANNE WEEKES of Worcester Polytechnic Institute has expert describes this as one of the best results obtained in been honored with the 2019 M. Gweneth Humphreys 762 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 66, NUMBER 5 Mathematics People NEWS the area in the last couple of decades and another math- ematician describes Mann as ‘that once-in-a-generation 2019 MAA Awards thinker who opens significant new directions for research.’” The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) awarded Mann received her PhD from the University of Chicago in several prizes at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Balti- 2014, working under Benson Farb. She has received a Sloan more, Maryland, in January 2019. Research Fellowship for 2019. Mann tells the Notices: “I've TOM LEINSTER of the University of always enjoyed the outdoors, and like to spend as much Edinburgh was awarded the Chau- of my non-mathematical time outside as I can, hiking, venet Prize for his article “Rethinking biking, and with the recent move to Providence I've even Set Theory,” American Mathemati- taken up rowing.” cal Monthly 121 (2014), no. 5. The –From AWM announcements prize citation reads in part: “Every mathematician knows that modern mathematics is an axiomatic system Daubechies and Voisin based on a theory of sets defined by Tom Leinster the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms plus Receive International Awards the Axiom of Choice (ZFC). But how many of us can recite these axioms? Even after looking them for Women in Science up, are they in accord with our working understanding of sets? Or is the ZFC conception of sets necessarily nonintu- INGRID DAUBECHIES of Duke Univer- itive as a result of having to rectify the difficulties of naive sity and CLAIRE VOISIN of the Collège set theory discovered by Russell? In this paper, Tom Leinster de France have been awarded 2019 tackles this issue with clarity and finesse.” Leinster studied L’Oréal-UNESCO International in Oxford and Cambridge, doing a PhD on higher category Awards for Women in Science. theory with Martin Hyland, followed by postdoctoral posi- Daubechies, representing North tions in Cambridge and Paris and a stint at the University America, was recognized “for her of Glasgow before joining the faculty at Edinburgh. His exceptional contribution to the nu- interests lie mainly in applications of category theory, re- merical treatment of images and cently focusing on applications to geometry, analysis, and Ingrid Daubechies signal processing, providing stan- dard and flexible algorithms for the quantification of biological diversity. He is the author of data compression. Her innovative three books: Higher Operads, Higher Categories (Cambridge research on wavelet theory has led University Presss, 2004), Basic Category Theory (Cambridge to the development of treatment University Press, 2014), and Entropy and Diversity: The Ax- and image filtration methods used in iomatic Approach (in press). He has also written about the technologies from medical imaging role played by mathematicians in the mass suspicionless equipment to wireless communica- surveillance of citizens by governments and is a contribu- tion.” Voisin, representing Europe, tor to the research blog The n-Category Café. Leinster tells was honored “for her outstanding the Notices: “I spend much of my free time campaigning work in algebraic geometry. Her pi- for democratic rights in Catalonia, and am donating the Claire Voisin oneering discoveries have allowed Chauvenet prize money to the legal fund of the Catalan [mathematicians and scientists] to resolve fundamental prisoners on trial for holding a referendum.” questions on topology and Hodge structures of complex CATHY O’NEIL of ORCAA was awarded the Euler Book algebraic varieties.” Each award is worth 100,000 euros Prize for Weapons of Math Destruction (Crown, 2016). Ac- (about US$113,000). The L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in cording to the prize citation, this is “a singularly import- Science program annually honors five outstanding women ant book especially at this current historical juncture. It scientists from five regions—the Arab and African States, is well-written, engaging, and tackles an important issue, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Latin America, and North ‘the dark side of data science,’ in a thoughtful way. O’Neil America—for their contributions to the sciences, including convincingly and passionately argues that math is not just mathematics, computer science, chemistry, physics, and for solving the world’s problems; it is responsible also materials science. for fueling some of them. Her discussion of ethical issues and how mathematical models, data, and algorithms are —From a L’Oréal-UNESCO announcement used to manipulate society is important both socially and politically.” O’Neil received her PhD in mathematics from Harvard University and taught at Barnard College before MAY 2019 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 763 Mathematics People NEWS entering the private sector with the hedge fund D. E. Shaw writing. She chaired the national Curriculum Renewal and for the software company RiskMetrics. In 2011 she Across the First Two Years (CRAFTY) committee and pro- began working as a data scientist. She is the founder of posed, organized, coordinated, and assisted in rewrites of ORCAA, an algorithmic auditing company. a series of articles in MAA Focus highlighting mathematics PHILIP URI TREISMAN of the University of Texas at Austin curriculum renewal projects throughout the United States. was honored with the 2019 Gung and Hu Award for Dis-
Recommended publications
  • Journal Symbolic Logic
    THT, E JOURNAL : OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC •' . X , , ' V. ;'••*• • EDITED B\Y \ ' ALONZO CHURCH S. C. KLEENE ALICE A. LAZEROWITZ Managing Editor'. ALFONS BOROERS Consulting Editors'. i W. ACKERMANN ROBERT FEYS ANDRZEJ MOSTOWSKJ G. A. BAYLIS FREDERIC B. FITCH R6ZSA PETER PAUL BERNAYS CARL G. HEMPEL BARKLEY ROSSER G. D. W. BERRY LEON HENKIN THORALF SKOLEM MARTIN DAVIS JOHN G. KEMENY A. R. TURQUETTE VOLUME 19 NUMBER 4 DECEMBER 1954 1 s PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE ASSOCIATION FOR SYMBOLIC LOGIC, INC. WITH THE AID OF SUBVENTIONS FROM EDWARD C. HEGELER TRUST FUND HARVARD UNIVERSITY RUTGERS UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY SMITH COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1_—; , Copyright igss by the Association for Symbolic Logic, Inc. Reproduction by photostat, photo-print, microfilm, or like process by permission only r • A Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.51.11, on 05 Oct 2021 at 08:48:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022481200086618 TABLE OF CONTENTS The formalization of mathematics. By HAO WANG 24.1 The recursive irrationality of n. By R. L. GOODSTEIN 267 Distributivity and an axiom of choice. By GEORGE E. COLLINS . 275 Reviews . ! t 278 List of officers and members of the Association for Symbolic Logic . 305 The JOURNAL OF SYMBOLIC LOCIC is the official organ of the Association for Symbolic Logic, Inc., published quarterly, in the months of March, June, September, and December. The JOURNAL is published for the Association by N.V. Erven P. Noordhoff, Publishers, Gronin- gen, The Netherlands.
    [Show full text]
  • Alfred Tarski and a Watershed Meeting in Logic: Cornell, 1957 Solomon Feferman1
    Alfred Tarski and a watershed meeting in logic: Cornell, 1957 Solomon Feferman1 For Jan Wolenski, on the occasion of his 60th birthday2 In the summer of 1957 at Cornell University the first of a cavalcade of large-scale meetings partially or completely devoted to logic took place--the five-week long Summer Institute for Symbolic Logic. That meeting turned out to be a watershed event in the development of logic: it was unique in bringing together for such an extended period researchers at every level in all parts of the subject, and the synergetic connections established there would thenceforth change the face of mathematical logic both qualitatively and quantitatively. Prior to the Cornell meeting there had been nothing remotely like it for logicians. Previously, with the growing importance in the twentieth century of their subject both in mathematics and philosophy, it had been natural for many of the broadly representative meetings of mathematicians and of philosophers to include lectures by logicians or even have special sections devoted to logic. Only with the establishment of the Association for Symbolic Logic in 1936 did logicians begin to meet regularly by themselves, but until the 1950s these occasions were usually relatively short in duration, never more than a day or two. Alfred Tarski was one of the principal organizers of the Cornell institute and of some of the major meetings to follow on its heels. Before the outbreak of World War II, outside of Poland Tarski had primarily been involved in several Unity of Science Congresses, including the first, in Paris in 1935, and the fifth, at Harvard in September, 1939.
    [Show full text]
  • A Bibliography of Publications in American Mathematical Monthly: 1990–1999
    A Bibliography of Publications in American Mathematical Monthly: 1990{1999 Nelson H. F. Beebe University of Utah Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB 155 S 1400 E RM 233 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090 USA Tel: +1 801 581 5254 FAX: +1 801 581 4148 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (Internet) WWW URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ 14 October 2017 Version 1.19 Title word cross-reference NF [737]. !(n) [82]. p [619, 149, 694, 412]. P2 [357]. p ≡ 1 (mod 4) [34]. φ [674]. φ(30n + 1) [947]. Φpq(X) [618]. π 0 y − z 2 [105]. 1 [21]. (logx N) [333]. (x +1) x = 1 [845]. 0 [740, 684, 693, 950, 489]. π 2 3 [495, 1]. 1 [495, 1]. 1=p [511]. 10 [140]. 168 Qc(x)=x + c [399]. R [35, 226].p R [357].p n n R [62, 588]. S6 [315]. σ [19]. −1 [995]. 2 [538]. 2 [335]. $29.50 [792]. 2 :n! [1003]. p p p P1 n × 2 × 2 [26]. 3 [828, 583]. 4 − 2 [748]. A [435]. [473]. 2 3= 6 [257]. n=0 1=n! [619]. A∗A = B∗B [607]. AB [620]. BA [620]. 2n tan(k) z [160]. } [512]. x [859]. x=(sin x) n 0 [260]. mod5 [982]. C1 [832]. cos(2π/n) [322]. [755]. x = f(x ) [832]. x2 + ym = z2n [7]. d [844]. dy=dx [449]. ex [859]. f(x; y) [469]. x2 + ym = z2n [65]. x5 + ax + b [465]. xn =1 − [235]. Z3 [975].
    [Show full text]
  • The Legacy of Norbert Wiener: a Centennial Symposium
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/pspum/060 Selected Titles in This Series 60 David Jerison, I. M. Singer, and Daniel W. Stroock, Editors, The legacy of Norbert Wiener: A centennial symposium (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, October 1994) 59 William Arveson, Thomas Branson, and Irving Segal, Editors, Quantization, nonlinear partial differential equations, and operator algebra (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, June 1994) 58 Bill Jacob and Alex Rosenberg, Editors, K-theory and algebraic geometry: Connections with quadratic forms and division algebras (University of California, Santa Barbara, July 1992) 57 Michael C. Cranston and Mark A. Pinsky, Editors, Stochastic analysis (Cornell University, Ithaca, July 1993) 56 William J. Haboush and Brian J. Parshall, Editors, Algebraic groups and their generalizations (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, July 1991) 55 Uwe Jannsen, Steven L. Kleiman, and Jean-Pierre Serre, Editors, Motives (University of Washington, Seattle, July/August 1991) 54 Robert Greene and S. T. Yau, Editors, Differential geometry (University of California, Los Angeles, July 1990) 53 James A. Carlson, C. Herbert Clemens, and David R. Morrison, Editors, Complex geometry and Lie theory (Sundance, Utah, May 1989) 52 Eric Bedford, John P. D'Angelo, Robert E. Greene, and Steven G. Krantz, Editors, Several complex variables and complex geometry (University of California, Santa Cruz, July 1989) 51 William B. Arveson and Ronald G. Douglas, Editors, Operator theory/operator algebras and applications (University of New Hampshire, July 1988) 50 James Glimm, John Impagliazzo, and Isadore Singer, Editors, The legacy of John von Neumann (Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, May/June 1988) 49 Robert C. Gunning and Leon Ehrenpreis, Editors, Theta functions - Bowdoin 1987 (Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, July 1987) 48 R.
    [Show full text]
  • Report for the Academic Year 1999
    l'gEgasag^a3;•*a^oggMaBgaBK>ry^vg^.g^._--r^J3^JBgig^^gqt«a»J^:^^^^^ Institute /or ADVANCED STUDY REPORT FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1998-99 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL STUDIES^SOCIAl SC^JCE LIBRARY INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 Institute /or ADVANCED STUDY REPORT FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1 998 - 99 OLDEN LANE PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY • 08540-0631 609-734-8000 609-924-8399 (Fax) http://www.ias.edu Extract from the letter addressed by the Institute's Founders, Louis Bamberger and Mrs. FeUx Fuld, to the Board of Trustees, dated June 4, 1930. Newark, New Jersey. It is fundamental m our purpose, and our express desire, that in the appointments to the staff and faculty, as well as in the admission of workers and students, no account shall be taken, directly or indirectly, of race, religion, or sex. We feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions as to personnel other than those designed to promote the objects for which this institution is established, and particularly with no regard whatever to accidents of race, creed, or sex. ni' TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 • BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 7 • FOUNDERS, TRUSTEES AND OFFICERS OF THE BOARD AND OF THE CORPORATION 10 • ADMINISTRATION 12 • PRESENT AND PAST DIRECTORS AND FACULTY 15 REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN 18 • REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 22 • OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR - RECORD OF EVENTS 27 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 41 • REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF HISTORICAL STUDIES FACULTY ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES MEMBERS, VISITORS,
    [Show full text]
  • Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics
    NASA/CP-2002-211736 Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics Edited by Victor A. Carre_o Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia Cksar A. Mugoz Institute[or Computer- Applications in Science and Engineering Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia So/lOne Tahar Concordia UniversiO; Montreal, Canada August 2002 The NASA STI Program Office... in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. advancement of aeronautics and space science. The Collected papers from scientific and NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) technical conferences, symposia, Program Office plays a key part in helping NASA seminars, or other meetings sponsored or maintain this important role. co-sponsored by NASA. The NASA STI Prograrn Office is operated by SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, Langley Research Center, the lead center for NASA's technical, or historical information from scientific and technical information. The NASA STI NASA programs, projects, and missions, Program Office provides access to the NASA STI often concerned with subjects having Database, the largest collection of aeronautical and substantial public interest. space science STI in the world. The Program Office is also NASA's institutional mechanism for TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. English- disseminating the results of its research and language translations of foreign scientific development activities. These results are and technical material pertinent to published by NASA in the NASA STI Report NASA's mission. Series, which includes the following report types: Specialized services that complement the STI Program Office's diverse offerings include TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of creating custom thesauri, building customized completed research or a major significant databases, organizing and publishing phase of research that present the results research results.., even providing videos.
    [Show full text]
  • RM Calendar 2019
    Rudi Mathematici x3 – 6’141 x2 + 12’569’843 x – 8’575’752’975 = 0 www.rudimathematici.com 1 T (1803) Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja RM132 (1878) Agner Krarup Erlang Rudi Mathematici (1894) Satyendranath Bose RM168 (1912) Boris Gnedenko 2 W (1822) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (1905) Lev Genrichovich Shnirelman (1938) Anatoly Samoilenko 3 T (1917) Yuri Alexeievich Mitropolsky January 4 F (1643) Isaac Newton RM071 5 S (1723) Nicole-Reine Étable de Labrière Lepaute (1838) Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan Putnam 2004, A1 (1871) Federigo Enriques RM084 Basketball star Shanille O’Keal’s team statistician (1871) Gino Fano keeps track of the number, S( N), of successful free 6 S (1807) Jozeph Mitza Petzval throws she has made in her first N attempts of the (1841) Rudolf Sturm season. Early in the season, S( N) was less than 80% of 2 7 M (1871) Felix Edouard Justin Émile Borel N, but by the end of the season, S( N) was more than (1907) Raymond Edward Alan Christopher Paley 80% of N. Was there necessarily a moment in between 8 T (1888) Richard Courant RM156 when S( N) was exactly 80% of N? (1924) Paul Moritz Cohn (1942) Stephen William Hawking Vintage computer definitions 9 W (1864) Vladimir Adreievich Steklov Advanced User : A person who has managed to remove a (1915) Mollie Orshansky computer from its packing materials. 10 T (1875) Issai Schur (1905) Ruth Moufang Mathematical Jokes 11 F (1545) Guidobaldo del Monte RM120 In modern mathematics, algebra has become so (1707) Vincenzo Riccati important that numbers will soon only have symbolic (1734) Achille Pierre Dionis du Sejour meaning.
    [Show full text]
  • An Interview with Martin Davis
    Notices of the American Mathematical Society ISSN 0002-9920 ABCD springer.com New and Noteworthy from Springer Geometry Ramanujan‘s Lost Notebook An Introduction to Mathematical of the American Mathematical Society Selected Topics in Plane and Solid Part II Cryptography May 2008 Volume 55, Number 5 Geometry G. E. Andrews, Penn State University, University J. Hoffstein, J. Pipher, J. Silverman, Brown J. Aarts, Delft University of Technology, Park, PA, USA; B. C. Berndt, University of Illinois University, Providence, RI, USA Mediamatics, The Netherlands at Urbana, IL, USA This self-contained introduction to modern This is a book on Euclidean geometry that covers The “lost notebook” contains considerable cryptography emphasizes the mathematics the standard material in a completely new way, material on mock theta functions—undoubtedly behind the theory of public key cryptosystems while also introducing a number of new topics emanating from the last year of Ramanujan’s life. and digital signature schemes. The book focuses Interview with Martin Davis that would be suitable as a junior-senior level It should be emphasized that the material on on these key topics while developing the undergraduate textbook. The author does not mock theta functions is perhaps Ramanujan’s mathematical tools needed for the construction page 560 begin in the traditional manner with abstract deepest work more than half of the material in and security analysis of diverse cryptosystems. geometric axioms. Instead, he assumes the real the book is on q- series, including mock theta Only basic linear algebra is required of the numbers, and begins his treatment by functions; the remaining part deals with theta reader; techniques from algebra, number theory, introducing such modern concepts as a metric function identities, modular equations, and probability are introduced and developed as space, vector space notation, and groups, and incomplete elliptic integrals of the first kind and required.
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Notices
    AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Notices Edited by J. H. CURTISS ....... ,........................................................................................................................................................ ISSUE NO. 27 NOVEMBER, 1957 .................................................................................................................................................................. CONTENTS MEETINGS Calendar of Meetings ...................................................... 2 Program of the November Meeting in Los Angeles ....•.•.•.•.... 3 Program of the November Meeting in Coral Gables ............. 9 Program of the November Meeting in Columbia ................. 13 PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT OF MEETING ...................... l6 NEWS ITEMS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ................................... J7 PERSONAL ITEMS .............................................................. 23 NEW PUBLICATIONS .......................................................... 27 MEMORANDA TO MEMBERS ................................................ 29 Published by the Society ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN and PROVIDENCE. RHODE ISLAND Printed in the United States of America MEETINGS CALENDAR OF MEETINGS NOTE: This Calendar lists all of the meetings which have been approved by the Council up to the date at which this issue of the NO­ TICES was sent to press. The meeting dates which fall rather far in the future are subject to change. This is particularly true of the meet­ ings to which no numbers have yet been assigned. Meet- Deadline ing Date Place
    [Show full text]
  • The Explanatory Power of a New Proof: Henkin's Completeness Proof
    The explanatory power of a new proof: Henkin’s completeness proof John Baldwin February 25, 2017 Mancosu writes But explanations in mathematics do not only come in the form of proofs. In some cases expla- nations are sought in a major recasting of an entire discipline. ([Mancosu, 2008], 142) This paper takes up both halves of that statement. On the one hand we provide a case study of the explanatory value of a particular milestone proof. In the process we examine how it began the recasting of a discipline. Hafner and Mancosu take a broad view towards the nature of mathematical explanation. They ar- gue that before attempting to establish a model of explanation, one should develop a ‘taxonomy of re- current types of mathematical explanation’ ([Hafner and Mancosu, 2005], 221) and preparatory to such a taxonomy propose to examine in depth various examples of proofs. In [Hafner and Mancosu, 2005] and [Hafner and Mancosu, 2008], they study deep arguments in real algebraic geometry and analysis to test the models of explanation of Kitcher and Steiner. In their discussion of Steiner’s model they challenge1 the as- sertion [Resnik and Kushner, 1987] that Henkin’s proof of the completeness theorem is explanatory, asking ‘what the explanatory features of this proof are supposed to consist of?’ As a model theorist the challenge to ‘explain’ the explanatory value of this fundamental argument is irresistible. In contrasting the proofs of Henkin and Godel,¨ we seek for the elements of Henkin’s proofs that permit its numerous generalizations. In Section 2 we try to make this analysis more precise through Steiner’s notion of characterizing property.
    [Show full text]
  • Mathematical Sciences Meetings and Conferences Section
    page 1349 Calendar of AMS Meetings and Conferences Thla calandar lists all meetings which have been approved prior to Mathematical Society in the issue corresponding to that of the Notices the date this issue of Notices was sent to the press. The summer which contains the program of the meeting, insofar as is possible. and annual meetings are joint meetings of the Mathematical Associ­ Abstracts should be submitted on special forms which are available in ation of America and the American Mathematical Society. The meet­ many departments of mathematics and from the headquarters office ing dates which fall rather far in the future are subject to change; this of the Society. Abstracts of papers to be presented at the meeting is particularly true of meetings to which no numbers have been as­ must be received at the headquarters of the Society in Providence, signed. Programs of the meetings will appear in the issues indicated Rhode Island, on or before the deadline given below for the meet­ below. First and supplementary announcements of the meetings will ing. Note that the deadline for abstracts for consideration for pre­ have appeared in earlier issues. sentation at special sessions is usually three weeks earlier than that Abatracta of papara presented at a meeting of the Society are pub­ specified below. For additional information, consult the meeting an­ lished in the journal Abstracts of papers presented to the American nouncements and the list of organizers of special sessions. Meetings Abstract Program Meeting# Date Place Deadline Issue
    [Show full text]
  • Henkin's Method and the Completeness Theorem
    Henkin's Method and the Completeness Theorem Guram Bezhanishvili∗ 1 Introduction Let A be a first-order alphabet and L be the first-order logic in the alphabet A. For a sentence ' in the alphabet A, we will use the standard notation \` '" for ' is provable in L (that is, ' is derivable from the axioms of L by the use of the inference rules of L); and \j= '" for ' is valid (that is, ' is satisfied in every interpretation of L). The soundness theorem for L states that if ` ', then j= '; and the completeness theorem for L states that if j= ', then ` '. Put together, the soundness and completeness theorems yield the correctness theorem for L: a sentence is derivable in L iff it is valid. Thus, they establish a crucial feature of L; namely, that syntax and semantics of L go hand-in-hand: every theorem of L is a logical law (can not be refuted in any interpretation of L), and every logical law can actually be derived in L. In fact, a stronger version of this result is also true. For each first-order theory T and a sentence ' (in the language of T ), we have that T ` ' iff T j= '. Thus, each first-order theory T (pick your favorite one!) is sound and complete in the sense that everything that we can derive from T is true in all models of T , and everything that is true in all models of T is in fact derivable from T . This is a very strong result indeed. One possible reading of it is that the first-order formalization of a given mathematical theory is adequate in the sense that every true statement about the theory can be derived from the axioms of T .
    [Show full text]