The LMS/Gresham Lecture is an annual event held in collaboration with Gresham College.
Gresham College in London has been presenting mathematics lectures to the public since 1598, when Henry Briggs (co-inventor of logarithms) was appointed the first Gresham Professor of Geometry. Later holders of that Chair have included Isaac Barrow, Robert Hooke, and more recently Sir Christopher Zeeman, Ian Stewart and Sir Roger Penrose. The current position now covers all areas of mathematics, not just geometry.
In 2007, the Society and Gresham College established a yearly joint lecture with the Society providing the speakers while Gresham provides the attractive venue and covers the costs of the lecture and a reception. These events are usually held in May.
This year's speaker is Colva Roney-Dougal OBE, Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews, and the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Computational Algebra at St Andrews.
You can watch previous LMS/Gresham Lectures here.
Programme (all times in BST):
| 18:00 |
Professor Colva Roney-Dougal OBE (University of St Andrews) How Hard is too Hard? An Introduction to Complexity Some mathematical problems can easily be solved on a computer, whilst some are probably impossible. Complexity theory is how we analyse difficulty, and one of the most famous open problems in mathematics is the question of whether P = NP: if the answer to a problem is easy to check, is the problem actually easy to solve? This lecture introduces the work of Alan Turing and other pioneers in the subject, before bringing us up-to-date with some recent progress. |
Please note that speakers and timings are subject to change.
Accessibility:
For details on accessibility, please visit the venue's website here.
If you have further accessibility questions not answered at the above link, please contact hall-booking@gresham.ac.uk.
Registration:
To register, please click here - please note, registration to attend in person will not open until one month before the event. Registration to attend online is open.
This event is free of charge and open to all ages, whether LMS/Gresham College members or not.
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 7 May. For any questions on Caring Grants, please contact womenanddiversity@lms.ac.uk.
For all other queries, please contact education@lms.ac.uk.