Arnold Ross Lecture

2008 Lecture

David C. Kelly, of Hampshire College, gave the 2008 Arnold Ross Lecture,  From Pascal's Triangle to Sierpinski's Triangle in Base 2 at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on Thursday, October 23, 2008.  To read more click here.

2007 Lecture

The 2007 Lecture was held at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA on Thursday, November 1, 2007. The speaker was Barry Mazur from Harvard University who spoke on How many prime numbers are there? Please click here for details.

2006 Lecture

The 2006 Lecture was held at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago on Tuesday, October 24, 2006. The speaker was Manjul Bhargava (picture left) from Princeton University. He spoke on The Mathematics of Rhythm. Please click here to read the Highlights of this Lecture.

2005 Lecture

The 2005 Lecture was held at the New York Hall of Science on Thursday, November 3, 2005. The speaker, Kenneth A. Ribet from University of California, Berkeley, spoke on Fermat's Last Theorem and Beyond. Read all about it here.

2004 Lecture

Elwyn Berlekamp, University of California at Berkeley, gave the 2004 Arnold Ross Lecture, The Dots and Boxes Game: Sophisticated Child's Play, at the St. Louis Science Center on April 21. Following the lecture AMS Public Awareness Officer Mike Breen emceed the "Who Wants To Be A Mathematician" game, during which five talented high school students won a total of $7,000 from the AMS. As a grand finale to the day's events, Berlekamp played many of the high school students in the audience in a simultaneous game of Dots and Boxes. Click here to read all about it.

2003 Lecture

In 2003, the lecture was held in October at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The guest speaker, Paul J. Sally Jr. from University of Chicago, spoke on Problems in Mathematics from Zero to Infinity to an enthusiastic crowd of approxomately 250 high school students and teachers. This lecture was further enhanced by a game show that was held after refreshments.

The successful mathematics game show, Who Wants to be a Mathematician, was run in conjunction with the lecture by the AMS Public Awareness Office. The exuberant student audience contributed to the atmosphere of excitement and enjoyment as they cheered the contestants on.

Comments from students who participated in the most recent Arnold Ross Lecture wrote:

"We are three students who attended the recent Arnold Ross Lecture at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and wanted to thank you for bringing the lecture here. It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun.We hope the lecture returns soon."

Click here to read all about it.

Background

As chairman of the Department at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Arnold Ross started a mathematics enrichment program for high school teachers in 1947. He started his multi-level summer program for gifted high school students in 1957 and he ran it every summer until 2000, giving the number theory lecture each morning. Arnold Ross died on September 25, 2002.

In keeping with this prestigious tradition, the American Mathematical Society is proud to present a series of lectures for talented high school mathematics students each year.

This is a time of exciting progress in the mathematical sciences. Mathematical research has stimulated new ideas in many subject areas--computer science, physics, engineering, biology, the behavioral sciences, and other disciplines. And yet many people are not aware of the importance of mathematics and the stimulating activities currently under way in mathematical research.

The purpose of this series of lectures for talented high school mathematics students is to stimulate their interest in mathematics beyond the traditional classroom and to show them the tremendous opportunities for careers in mathematics--as mathematics teachers and as researchers in government, industry, and university programs. The lectures are intended to illustrate some recent development in mathematical research.

Committee for Arnold Ross Lectures