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Announcement
Francis Edward Su
Harvey Mudd College
Voting in Agreeable Societies
September 30, 2009
3pm, 201 SEC
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Abstract
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When do majorities exist? How does the geometry of the political spectrum
influence the outcome? What does mathematics have to say about how people
behave? When mathematical objects have a social interpretation, the
associated theorems have social applications. We give examples of
situations where sets model preferences, and show how extensions of
classical theorems on convex sets can be used in the analysis of voting in
"agreeable" societies. This talk also features research with
undergraduates.
Francis Edward Su is a Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, and
earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. His research is in geometric
combinatorics and applications to the social sciences, and he has
co-authored over a dozen papers with undergraduates. He also has a passion
for teaching and popularizing mathematics. From the Mathematical
Association of America (MAA), he received the 2001 Merten M. Hasse Prize
for expository writing, the 2004 Henry L. Alder Award for distinguished
teaching, and was the 2006 James R.C. Leitzel Lecturer, and was recently
elected First Vice-President of MAA. He also serves on the Council of the
American Mathematical Society and the editorial board of the American
Mathematical Monthly. In his spare time he enjoys working on his "Math Fun
Facts" website, which receives nearly 4,000 hits each day.
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