The AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics

About the Lectures

The AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics began in 2005, to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of Albert Einstein's annus mirabilis when he published four fundamental papers that changed the course of twentieth-century physics.

The lectures were endowed by a generous donor in 2008. They are to be given annually at one of the Society's eight sectional meetings. Suggest a Speaker.

Next Lecture

2024 · Talitha Washington · Clark Atlanta University

The 2024 Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics will be given by Talitha Washington, Clark Atlanta University, at the 2024 Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting at Howard University, Washington, DC, which will be held April 6-7, 2024.

Past Lectures

	2023 · Nathaniel Whitaker · University of Massachusetts, Amherst The 2023 Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics was given by Nathaniel Whitaker, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, at the Spring Central Sectional Meeting at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, April 15-16, 2023. The title of the lecture was From Segregation to Research Mathematician. See the poster created by the University of Cincinnati.
	2022 · This lecture was cancelled, as part of the cancellation of the 2022 Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting.
	2021 · Abba Gumel · Arizona State University The 2021 Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics was delivered virtually on Saturday, March 20, 2021, by Professor Abba Gumel of Arizona State University. The title of his lecture was Mathematics of Infectious Diseases. See the poster here. Abba Gumel is the Foundation Professor of Mathematics at the School of Mathematical and Statistical Science, Arizona State University. He received his PhD in Mathematics from Brunel University, England, in 1994, and has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of Manitoba, Canada (1999-2014). His work is primarily focused on the use of mathematical approaches to gain insight into the transmission dynamics and control of emerging and re-emerging diseases of public health importance. Read more at his university page. See video of his lecture here.
	2019 · Barry Mazur · Harvard University The 2019 Einstein Lecture was held in the Kennedy Theatre at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI.The title of his lecture was On the Arithmetic of Curves. See the poster here. Barry Mazur is Gerhard Gade University Professor at Harvard University. Winner of many awards and prizes, including the National Medal of Science, Mazur has done outstanding work in many areas of mathematics—his work provided a foundation for the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem—and is known for being able to communicate those results to non-mathematicians and to relish doing so. See video of his lecture here:
	2018 · Edward Frenkel · UC Berkeley The 2018 Einstein Lecture was held in the Blackman Auditorium, Ell Hall, at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, on April 21, 2018 at 5:15 pm. The title of his lecture was Imagination and Knowledge. See the poster here. Edward Frenkel is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, which he joined in 1997 after being on the faculty at Harvard University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and the winner of the Hermann Weyl Prize in mathematical physics. Frenkel's latest book "Love and Math" was a New York Times bestseller, has been named one of the Best Books of the year by both Amazon and iBooks, and won the Euler Book Prize from the Mathematical Association of America. It has been published in 17 languages, with more translations in the pipeline
	2017 · Richard Evan Schwartz · Brown University 04/01/17 at Indiana University, Bloomington, Idiana Spring Central Sectional Meeting Modern Scratch Paper: Graphical Explorations in Geometry and Dynamics
	2016 · Erik Demaine · Massachusetts Institute of Technology 03/05/16 at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting Fun with Fonts: Mathematical Typography
	2015 · Simon Tavaré · Cambridge University 3/07/15 at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting Cancer by the Numbers
	2014 · James H. Simons · Simons Foundation 10/25/14 at San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California Fall Western Section Meeting · View Highlights Mathematics, Common Sense, and Good Luck
	2013 · Jon Kleinberg · Cornell University 10/19/13 at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, Fall Central Section Meeting · View presentation slides Bursts, Cascades, and Hot Spots: A Glimpse of Some On-Line Social Phenomena at Global Scales
	2012 · Gunther Uhlmann · University of California and Irvine & University of Washington 03/17/12 at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Spring Eastern Section Meeting Cloaking: Science Meets Science-Fiction
	2010 · Terence Tao · University of California Los Angeles 10/09/10 at University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, Fall Western Section Meeting The Cosmic Distance Ladder
	2009 · Michael S. Waterman · University of Southern California 04/04/09 at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina Spring Southeastern Section Meeting Reading DNA sequences:Twenty-first century technology with eighteenth century mathematics
	2008 · Freeman Dyson · Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton 10/04/2008 at the University of British Columbia and the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) 2008 Fall Western Section Meeting Note: The Einstein Lecture by Freeman Dyson was cancelled. A link to his Birds and Frogs Notices article is provided.
	2007 · Sir Roger Penrose · University of Oxford 10/6/07 at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, College Avenue Campus, New Brunswick, New Jersey Fall Eastern Section Meeting Spacetime Conformal Geometry, and a New Extended Cosmology
	2006 · Benoît B. Mandelbrot · Yale University 4/29/06 at San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California Spring Western Section Meeting The Nature of Roughness in Mathematics, Science, and Art
	2005 · Sir Michael Atiyah · University of Edinburgh 10/21/05 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska Fall Central Section Meeting The Nature of Space Press releases and reviews: Notices article — Sir Michael Atiyah's Einstein Lecture: "The Nature of Space" by G. W. Johnson and Mark E. Walker News article — First Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics Event photos