The Dr. F. Ronald & Helen E. Britton Lecture Lectures, Department of Mathematics & Statistics @ McMaster University

Tue, Sep 22/09 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. HH 104	Polynomial interpolation in a million points (including a demonstration of the chebfun software system)
Wed, Sep 23/09 3:30-4:30 HH 217	Eigenmodes of drums and Physics Nobel Prizes
Thu, Sep 24/09 3:30-4:30 HH 104	Nonnormal dynamics and pseudospectra
Fri, Sep 25/09 3:30-4:30 HH 305	Who invented the great numerical algorithms?

Dr. F. Ronald Britton was a former Professor of Mathematics at McMaster, and served as Chair of the Department of Mathematics. After his retirement, he endowed our annual Britton Lectures in memory of his late wife Helen E. Britton. The Britton Lectures have provided the University with a series of distinguished invited speakers since its beginning in 1978.

Abstract: Even most numerical analysts don't know it, but high-order polynomial interpolation is an utterly well-behaved process, so long as you use clustered interpolation points (e.g. Chebyshev points) and evaluate the interpolant stably by the barycentric formula. An interpolant of degree one million, for example, is not a problem at all. This talk will comment on the curious history of misconceptions about polynomials, mention some key theorems in this area, and then demonstrate a software system we have built to take advantage of the power of Chebyshev interpolants: chebfun. This is joint work with, among others, Nick Hale, Ricardo Pachon, Rodrigo Platte, and Toby Driscoll.

Past Britton Lecture Series:

2007-2008	Chris Rogers University of Cambridge	Optimal Investment
2006-2007	Donald Dawson Carleton	Spatial structures and universality classes in stochastic population systems
2005-2006	Toniann Pitassi Department of Computer Science University of Toronto	Recent Advances I
2004-2005	David Rand University of Warwick	Evolutionary design principles for circadian clocks
2003-2004	Dr. Haim Brezis Universite Pierre et Marie Curie & Rutgers University	The Ginzburg-Landau Model: Lecture I
2002-2003	John Coates Cambridge University	Iwasawa Algebras and Arithmetic I
2001-2002	Robion Kirby University of California, Berkeley	Lecture II
2000-2001	David Brillinger University of California, Berkeley	Lecture II
1999-2000	Peter Schneider Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat
1998-1999	David C. Brydges University of Virginia
1997-1998	Neil S. Trudinger Australian National University
1996-1997	Anand Pillay University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1995-1996	R.V. Moody University of Alberta
1994-1995	Carlos E. Kenig University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1993-1994	Ronnie Lee Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
1992-1993	Joseph J. Kohn Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
1991-1992	Ronald L. Graham AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
1990-1991	Samuel Karlin Stanford University, Stanford, California
1989-1990	Michael Aizenman Courant Institute of Mathematics, New York University
1988-1989	Richard M. Schoen Stanford University, Stanford, California
1987-1988	Victor P. Snaith University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
1986-1987	Jerry L. Bona Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
1985-1986	Frank H. Clarke Centre de Recherche Mathematiques, University of Montreal
1984-1985	C.R. Rao University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
1983-1984	Dana S. Scott Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
1982-1983	Marvin Shinbrot University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C.
1981-1982	Louis Nirenberg Courant Institute, N.Y.U, New York, NY
1980-1981	Peter J. Hilton Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
1979-1980	Ian N. Sneddon University of Glasgow, Scotland
1978-1979	Paul L. Butzer Technical University of Aachen, Federal Republic of Germany
1999-2000	Ravi Vakil Stanford University	Britton Lecture Series - TBA

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