Holborn
London
UK
Combinatorial mathematics is concerned with selecting, arranging and counting objects of various kinds. Included under its wide umbrella are permutations and combinations, graphs and networks, certain geometrical problems, and sudoku puzzles. This lecture marks the publication ofCombinatorics: Ancient & Modern, edited by Robin Wilson and John J. Watkins and written for a general audience by a galaxy of distinguished historians of science and practising mathematicians. The first ever history of the subject, it has chapters ranging from ancient India and China, via the Islamic world and the Renaissance, to recent topics.
Book launch followed by a reception.
Professor Robin Wilson is Emeritus Gresham Professor of Geometry, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Open University, and a Stipendiary Lecturer at Pembroke College, Oxford. Professor Wilson also regularly teaches as a guest Professor at Colorado College.
Professor Wilson’s academic interests lie in graph theory, particularly in colouring problems, e.g. the four colour problem, and algebraic properties of graphs. He also researches the history of mathematics, particularly British mathematics and mathematics in the 17th century and the period 1860 to 1940 and the history of graph theory and combinatorics.
Outside of the strict mathematical canon, Professor Wilson is particularly interested in the musical output of Gilbert and Sullivan – an interest that has given rise to publications and two Gresham College lectures: ‘The Other Side of Sullivan‘ and ‘A Sing-In with Gilbert and Sullivan‘.