LMS General Meeting and Celebration of Kelvin's 200th Anniversary (in partnership with BSHM and University of Glasgow)

LMS General Meeting and Celebration of Kelvin's 200th Anniversary

This event marks the 200th Anniversary of Lord Kelvin's birth on 26 June 1824. The lectures are aimed at a general mathematical audience. All interested, both members and non-members of the LMS and BSHM, are most welcome to attend this event.

The event is run in partnership between the London Mathematical Society (LMS), the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) and the University of Glasgow.

Programme (all timings are in BST)

Abstracts

Ruiping Mu (Northwest University)
Thomson and Stokes’ work on the Establishment of the Dynamical Equation and its Associated Proofs

Describing the state of motion of a fluid by building dynamical equations was an important goal in the early history of fluid dynamics. Based on the foundation of hydrostatic studies by Bernoulli, D’Alembert, Euler, Lagrange and others, Poisson, Cauchy, Thomson, Stokes and others gave relatively complete equations in fluid dynamics and, importantly, they proved important theorems on the conditions under which the dynamical equations are integrable. Their further refinement of the fundamental equations of fluid dynamics given by Euler laid the foundations for nineteenth-century British research in fluid dynamics centred on Stokes. Tracing the mathematical approach to the thought of the trio of Poisson, Cauchy, and Thomson, Stokes helps us to better understand the process of perception and application of mathematical knowledge from the late 18th to the 19th century.

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Rosalba Garcia-Millan (Kings College London)
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics and field theory in active matter

Active matter transforms fuel into mechanical action at the local, microscopic scale. Living organisms, such as swimming bacteria and growing cell tissue, provide plenty of examples of active systems. Celebrating Lord Kelvin’s legacy, I will talk about how studying active matter is useful to develop our understanding of life. In particular, I will discuss current open questions on quantifying entropy production and extracting work from active matter. Since active matter involves fluctuations, many interacting degrees of freedom, persistence and strong correlations, at the core of these questions lies the need for new mathematical tools to study them. I will outline how I use field theory to tackle some of these challenges.

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Jemma Lorenat (Pitzer College)
An illustrated history of drawing knots

For the past two centuries knot theory has presented a novel site on which to explore a variety of "aids to the imagination.'' This talk surveys complementary ways of seeing (or obscuring) knot features for purposes of representation, calculation, and identification. While some symbolic practices remained confined to a single author, others persist until today. I will begin with Lord Kelvin's 1867 paper before turning to research on knot tabulations and the diagrams that accompanied this work.

+ more TBC.

Registration

• To attend in person, please complete the registration form here.
   
• To attend online, please complete the registration form here.
   
• To attend the Society Dinner, please complete the registration form here.

Grants of up to £200 are available to parents and carers who wish to attend this event and require help towards caring costs. Please see the Caring Supplementary Grants page on the LMS website. Please submit your application no later than 15:00 on Thursday 20 June. For any questions on Caring Grants, please contact womenanddiversity@lms.ac.uk.

Accessibility

The building currently has stepped access only to the raised ground floor and lower ground floor entrances.

An accessible toilet is located at the lower ground floor level.

Please see the LMS website for further details on accessibility