AMS Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures
The Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship was established by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) in 1923 to highlight the evolving role of mathematics in advancing research and addressing practical challenges. Named after Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903), a mathematical physicist whose foundational work influenced both theoretical and applied sciences, the lectureship honors contributions that demonstrate the depth and breadth of mathematics.
Invitation to deliver a Gibbs Lecture is a recognition of a scholar's significant contributions to the mathematical sciences and their applications. These public lectures are designed to engage the broader academic community, offering insights into how mathematics informs research across disciplines and impacts contemporary thought.
The Gibbs Lectures aim to foster an appreciation for the role of mathematics in research and innovation, connecting its theoretical foundations with real-world applications and encouraging dialogue between mathematicians and researchers in related fields.
Upcoming Gibbs Lecture

Nick Trefethen
Harvard University
Lecture: Polynomials and Rational Functions
Date:
Location: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC
Nick Trefethen is distinguished for his many seminal contributions to numerical analysis and its applications in applied mathematics and in engineering.
Abstract: Much of mathematics starts from polynomials. This talk, full of online demos, will begin by showing how it has become routine in recent decades to compute with polynomials of degrees in the thousands or millions. This leads to the best numerical methods for many problems, including zerofinding. Then we move on to rational functions p(z)/q(z), a much newer tool for practical computation whose analysis relies on potential theory in the complex plane. Everything has changed since the introduction of the "AAA algorithm" in 2018. Rational functions now provide remarkable methods for interpolation, analytic continuation, analysis of singularities, computation of linear and nonlinear eigenvalues and resonances, quadrature, Hilbert transform, solution of Laplace/biharmonic/Helmholtz problems, and conformal mapping.