skip to main content

x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender Lunch Talk with Dr. Eugenia Cheng

Tuesday, October 18, 2022
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Add to Cal

The question of why women and minorities are under-represented in mathematics is complex and there are no simple answers, only many contributing factors. Dr. Eugenia Cheng will draw on a combination of precise mathematical reasoning, techniques of abstract mathematical thinking, and her experiences as a woman in the male-dominated field of mathematics and argue that if we focus character traits rather than gender we can have a more productive and less divisive conversation about math and beyond. Dr. Cheng will present a new theory for doing so, showing that we can use abstract mathematical thinking to work towards a more inclusive society in this politically divisive era.

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqJ80hw3tZ7R9ri35QWRFf6Jo4K_1AW7lzv2ID51RzJwBDJA/viewform

Dr. Eugenia Cheng - https://eugeniacheng.com/ - is a mathematician, educator, author, public speaker, columnist, concert pianist and artist. She is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She won tenure in Pure Mathematics at the University of Sheffield, UK and is now Honorary Visiting Fellow at City, University of London. She has previously taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Chicago and Nice and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching, her aim is to rid the world of "math Phobia". Her first popular math book, How to Bake Pi was published in 2015 to widespread acclaim including from the New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and she was interviewed around the world including on the BBC, NPR, and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Eugenia was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed around 15 million times to date.

For more information, please contact Greg Fletcher by phone at 626-395-6163 or by email at caltechy@caltech.edu.