The 47 Lecture is an annual public event sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Pomona College. The Department established the Lecture in 2022 as a Distinguished Lecture Series on behalf of a gift from two anonymous donors.
We created the 47 Lecture as a way to engage the larger Claremont Community through the eyes of mathematical scientists. We understand that many people have negative experiences with mathematics, and may even view mathematicians and statisticians alike as aloof individuals with no interest in contemporary issues. We in the Department of Math and Stats wish to tackle these notions directly by featuring mathematical scientists who celebrate the spirit of possibility, the courage of resistance, and the creativity of our collective imagination.
This annual lecture is free and open to the Claremont Community.
Past Lectures
2023 - Moon Duchin on "Rethinking Representation”
On Thursday October 19, Moon Duchin, Professor of Mathematics and Senior Fellow in the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, ive a talk titled "Rethinking Representation.”
Dr. Duchin runs the MGGG Redistricting Lab, an interdisciplinary group of researchers working on the basic science of democracy. They helped commissions and state governments collect public feedback and find better redistricting maps around the country in the last cycle, and Duchin served as an expert in state and federal court cases in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas.
2022 - Eugenia Cheng on "X+Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender"
On Thursday October 20, Eugenia Cheng, Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, gave a talk titled "X+Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender.
Professor Cheng earned her doctorate in pure math from Cambridge and won tenure at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is a Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and is an early pioneer of maths on YouTube, with videos that have over 20 million views. Her popular math book How to Bake Pi was featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Beyond Infinity was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017. Professor Cheng writes the Everyday Math column for Wall Street Journal and is a commissioned composer for GRAMMY-nominated soprano Laura Strickling. She also wrote The Art of Logic, X + Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Re-thinking Gender, and two children's books. Her next book, The Joy of Abstraction, is out in October 2022 and Is Math Real? in 2023.