LSE Mathematics Public Lecture and Alumni Event - Tuesday 22 November 2011
On the evening of 22nd November 2011, the LSE Mathematics Department hosted a Public Lecture followed by a reception for our former students.
To begin the evening, journalist Dr George Szpiro, who writes for the Neue Zuercher Zeitung and is a popular science author for mathematics, read from his new book "Pricing the Future". The event was open to the public, and more than 100 people attended the talk, which was lively and followed with great interest. "Pricing the Future" is his fifth book, and will appear in January 2012 in the UK.
Following the George Szpiro public lecture, the Alumni reception on the 8th floor of LSE's New Academic Building saw more than 40 alumni gather, with graduates from a number of different years and different degrees: the BSc in Mathematics and Economics, the MSc in Applicable Mathematics, the MSc in Financial Mathematics and from our PhD programme.
Both Professor Steve Alpern, and current Head of Department Professor Jan van den Heuvel, spoke briefly at the event.
Dr Pavel Gapeev, one of the event organisers, said, "it was very nice to see so many of our former tutees and advisees and to talk to them about their current work as well as about their student time at LSE. Building on the success of this event, we intend to continue organising other informal meetings with former students in the future. We are keen to keep in touch with our alumni."
The full details of the events are below:
6:30pm - Guest Lecture "Pricing the Future" in New Theatre, EAS.E171
8:00pm - Reception on 8th floor of New Academic Building, NAB
The LSE Mathematics Department is organising an Alumni Event on Tuesday 22 November 2011 at the LSE and you are all warmly invited to join us. It will give you the opportunity to meet up with old friends, fellow former students, alumni from other years, and, of course, your lecturers.
There will be a reception at 8:00pm, for the Mathematics Alumni, on the 8th floor of the New Academic Building, NAB.
Details on how to register can be found here.
As a special event BEFORE the reception, we have organized a free public lecture from 6:30-7:30pm, New Theatre, EAS 171 by:
George Szpiro on "Pricing the future":
"Financial options have been used for centuries, but only with the Black-Scholes formula were they given a mathematically precise value. The story of finance, physics, and the 300-year journey to the Black-Scholes equation is one of genius and discovery, with some dramatic personal twists.
Dr George Szpiro is a journalist for the Neue Zuercher Zeitung and a highly-regarded popular science author, and will present some of his recent writing on the history of financial mathematics. His new book "Pricing the Future" will appear on 29 November 2011."
We look forward to welcoming you to both these events. Please contact Loraine Evans for further information (l.evans1@lse.ac.uk)