The Notion of Approximation in Mathematics, how to twist it, turn it, and make it useful…

The maths society are hosting our first ever colloquim with lecturer Lyonell Boulton on The Notion of Approximation, How to Twist it, Turn it, and Make it Useful. Below is the description of the talk:

“The notion of a series expansion of a function is fundamental in mathematics. Taylor/Maclaurin series, Laurent series and Fourier series, are among the best tools available to solve equations, prove theorems and even compute values of strange mathematical constants. In this talk, I will describe my research on a general Fourier approximation theorem. In it, we will deform the circle, twist the classical trigonometric functions by turning their definition, and we will even get rid of the classical identity pi.”

Here is a bit about Lyonnel:

“I have been an academic at Heriot-Watt since 2005. I arrived as a post-doctoral researcher, then became a lecturer in 2007, a reader in 2010 and a full professor in 2022. My area of specialism within the mathematical sciences is the interplay between pure and applicable spectral theory. Although normally work with both approaches, I prefer constructive over non-constructive mathematical proofs. This means that I prefer developing frameworks to examine specific properties of a mathematical model, over studying big or too abstract theories. During my career I have changed subjects completely about every 5 years. I was classically trained in spectral and operator theory, then moved to computational mathematics and mathematical physics, then to approximation theory and ODEs, then to non-self-adjoint operators and one-parameter semigroups, and right now I am working on revivals and fractality.”

This event will be in-person in EM182 at 14:30 on Wednesday 22nd October.