Monday, October 2
MSCS Seminar: Snap Cubes, Grid Graphs, Wheels and Unicycles
Jacob Siehler, Assistant Professor of Math, Stats & CS, Gustavus College
Abstract: The Tutte polynomial is beloved by algebraic graph theorists, but rarely appears in the second grade classroom (and is not even mentioned in most state standards at this grade level). However, a simple classroom question about building with Snap Cubes will
lead us to graph polynomials, intriguing integer sequences, and thrillingly large numbers. We’ll also see some lovely examples of linear algebra applied to counting problems. No background in graph theory or algebra will be necessary to appreciate the talk, however.
3:30 pm in RNS 310, Everyone Welcome
Biology Seminar: Exploring Species-Level Competition Through Computer Simulation Modeling
Steve Freedberg, Associate Professor of Biology at St. Olaf College
4:00 pm in RNS 410
Tuesday, October 3
No Seminars
Wednesday, October 4
No Seminars
Thursday, October 5
No Seminars
Friday, October 6
Chemistry Seminar: Adventures in the d-block: two vignettes of organometallic chemistry
Emily Reeves ‘15, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
This presentation will explore organometallic reactivity of two transition metals, tantalum and palladium, which reside on opposite sides of the d-block and have very different chemical properties. Both metals, however, have the potential to catalyze polymerization reactions. First, I will address the design and synthesis of a tantalum methylidene complex for conversion of methane into higher hydrocarbons. We will then examine a palladium catalyst system for chemoselective cross-coupling. For both stories, I will highlight how our group uses DFT calculations to inform our syntheses.
3:15 pm, RNS 310
MSCS Research Seminar: An Introduction to Hypercyclicity – Part 2
David Walmsley, St. Olaf Mathematics Visiting Professor
Abstract: In this second installment, we will transition from the entire complex plane to the open unit disk, and from entire functions to bounded analytic functions on the disk. In particular, we will focus on the set of functions analytic on the open unit disk and bounded in modulus by one. This set is no longer a vector space, yet we can apply the same techniques as in the first installment to study hypercyclicity on it. We will study composition operators, and finally be able to see what a hypercyclic element can look like.
3:40 pm, RNS 204