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Mathematics
College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
Mathematics

The Reid Lecture Series

The Reid Lecture was established in 2015 and has continued with support from Founding Library Dean and Librarian Emerita Marion Reid and Founding Faculty Member and Professor Emeritus K. Brooks Reid. It is an annual public lecture geared toward showing a broad audience the beauty of mathematics. It is hosted each spring by the 糖心少女 Department of Mathematics. The event is open to the local and campus communities, including engaged high school and college students from other campuses and interested community members.

Juggling Counts

Steve Butler smiling while holding a deck of cards

Mathematics is a language which can help us describe and explore patterns. One source of patterns that mathematicians have been exploring comes from juggling (the tossing of objects, usually balls or clubs). We will look at multiple ways to describe juggling patterns that allow us to find new juggling patterns, and to count how many possible patterns exist. We can compare answers to various problems to give a combinatorial proof of Worpitzky鈥檚 identity. We will also look at a few juggling-based problems that mathematics has not yet succeeded in answering.

is an award-winning teacher who has given talks at numerous venues ranging from the AMS-MAA address at Mathfest 2021 to the Iowa State Fair and almost everything in between. Steve鈥檚 mathematics was heavily influenced by his mentors at UC San Diego, Fan Chung and Ron Graham. His mathematical research includes spectral graph theory, shuffling, juggling, origami, tiling, Apollonian circle packings, parking functions, and more. In 2015, he became the 512th mathematician to have an Erd艖s number of 1.

Steve Butler has been at Iowa State University since 2011 where he is a Morrill Professor and the Barbara J Janson Professor of Mathematics.

Reid Lecture Series Archives

  • 2015: The inaugural Reid Lecture given by Dr. Ron Graham, UC San Diego Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
  • 2016: Dr. Francis Su, Harvey Mudd College, Department of Mathematics.
  • 2017:  Dr. Alice Silverberg, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, UC Irvine.
  • 2018:  Dr. William Dunham, Mathematical Historian, Distinguished Author, and Research Associate in Mathematics at Bryn Mawr.
  • Spring 2019:  Dr. Talithia Williams, Department of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College.
  • Fall 2019:  Dr. Ron Gould, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Heilbrun Distinguished Fellow, Emory University.
  • 2021: Dr. Peter Winkler, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Dartmouth College
  • 2022: Dr. Robin Wilson, Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, Emeritus Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, and a former Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. 
  • 2023: Dr. Ami Radunskaya, Linghurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics, Pomona College.
  • 2024: Dr. 脕lvaro Lozano-Robledo, Department of Mathematics, University of Connecticut.
  • 2025: Dr. Ken Golden, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah.