UA Speaker Does the Math When it Comes to Cleaning the Air

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Chris Jones, a noted mathematician, will speak on “Climate Change: Can Mathematics Help Clear the Air?” at 1 p.m. Friday, April 17, in 208 Gordon Palmer Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

The talk is free and open to the public.

Jones’ talk, aimed at a general audience, will consider the role mathematicians can play in addressing climate change.

“Predictions and prophesies have fueled the human emotions since time immemorial,” Jones states. “The climate change debate and the pressure on mathematical models to produce accurate predictions are put in perspective.”

Jones studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Bristol in Great Britain and received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979. He was a professor in applied mathematics at Brown University for 12 years, where he was also director of the Lefschetz Center for Dynamical Systems.

He has recently been a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He received a Senior US Scientist Award from the Humboldt Foundation in 1993. Most recently, he has been interested in applying ideas from dynamical systems to the ocean and climate. His Web site is at http://www.amath.unc.edu/Faculty/ckrtj/.

The talk is part of the Alabama Perspectives on Sustainability and Climate Change series. The series in The College of Arts and Sciences is a two year-long program of lectures, exhibits, forums and discussions that brings to campus and the Tuscaloosa community national experts to address the science, politics, economics and ethics of energy sustainability, climate change and its related social effects. For more information on the program, go to http://www.as.ua.edu/public/programs/apsacc/index.html.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in Alabama. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.