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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Mary Anthony
March 13, 2008
Mathematician to Speak During Distinguished Scientists Lecture at
Trinity University
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Kenneth A. Ribet |
SAN ANTONIO – Kenneth A. Ribet, professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkley, will discuss “The Five Fundamental Operations of Mathematics: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, and Modular Forms” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 31, in Laurie Auditorium, as part of the Trinity University Distinguished Scientists Lecture Series. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The sum of two perfect squares is sometimes a perfect square—for example, 9 + 16 = 25. By contrast, Fermat’s Last Theorem asserts that the sum of two perfect cubes is never a perfect cube, the sum of two perfect fourth powers is never a perfect fourth power, and so on. Central in the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem (1994) is a new connection between number theory and the world of modular forms. Modular forms, which have been described as the “fifth fundamental operation of arithmetic,” are special functions (like sines and cosines) that shed light on many questions in number theory. Dr. Ribet will explain how they intervene in number-theoretic counting situations.
Dr. Ribet studied at Brown University and Harvard University. He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1973. After three years of teaching at Princeton and two years of research in Paris, Dr. Ribet joined the Berkeley faculty in 1978. He received his department's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1985.
Known for his work in number theory and algebraic geometry, Dr. Ribet played a prominent role in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics at UCLA and of the editorial boards of many mathematical textbooks at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Dr. Ribet also serves on the editorial boards of Mathematische Annalen, the Annales de l'Institut Fourier, the Journal of Number Theory, and Mathematics Research Letters.
In 1997, Dr. Ribet was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences in 2000. He was awarded the Fermat Prize in 1989 and received an honorary doctorate from Brown University in 1998. He was inducted as a Vigneron d'honneur by the Jurade de Saint Emilion in 1988.
The Trinity University Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series is made possible through an endowment created by Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Brown of San Antonio. For more information, contact Trinity University’s Office of University Communications at 210-999-8406.
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© 2008 Trinity University