Hutton Honors College

Pizza Discussion Supper with Magician-turned-mathematician Persi Diaconis, professor of mathematics and statistics at Stanford University.

This is a small-group program and requires participants to sign up in advance. Participants must be IU undergraduates and must sign up using the established procedures. For complete sign-up procedures, see http://www.indiana.edu/~iubhonor/hdextra/signup.php.

Persi Diaconis began his professional life as a magician at age 16-only enrolling in college eight years later when he took a probability class to improve his understanding of certain magic tricks. By age 35 he had been noted as one of the world's most outstanding young probabilists, and at 36, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award. Professor Diaconis is the world's foremost authority on the speed of convergence of Markov chains to equilibrium, which he translates into everyday life by showing that a deck of cards can be properly shuffled, or randomized, in seven shuffles, but not six. His background as a magician and a statistician has led him to demystify ESP and paranormal activities; and he has co-taught a course on deception, including magic tricks, fraud, forgery, and lying. The supper provides a chance to talk with this gifted mathematician about coincidences and deception, applied statistics and abstract probability, and other topics of interest to those who attend. Professor Diaconis, the Mary Sunseri Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Stanford, will be visiting IU as a Patten Lecturer.

Professor Diaconis will deliver his first Patten Lecture, "On Coincidences," on Tuesday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Fine Arts 015; his second lecture, "The Search for Randomness," will be held on Thursday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Woodburn 100. (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LOCATION OF THE MARCH 4 LECTURE REPRESENTS A CHANGE FROM WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED.) Both lectures are free and open to the public.