CAM colloquium - Friday, April 4
3:30 p.m.
655 Rhodes Hall
Speaker: Jonathan Farley, Caltech
Title:
Toward a Mathematical Theory of Counterterrorism: Building the Perfect
Terrorist Cell
Abstract: After
making assumptions that we hope are not too unrealistic, we attempt
to find the structure of the terrorist cell that is least likely to
be disrupted upon the capture of a certain number of its members.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Dr. Jonathan David Farley is in the department of mathematics at
the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He has formerly
been a Science Fellow at Stanford University's Center for International
Security and Cooperation and in the department of applied mathematics
at MIT. Seed Magazine named him one of "15 people who have shaped
the global conversation about science in 2005."
He is the 2004 recipient of the Harvard Foundation's Distinguished
Scientist of the Year Award, a medal presented on behalf of the president
of Harvard University in recognition of "outstanding achievements
and contributions in the field of mathematics." The City of Cambridge,
Massachusetts (home to both Harvard University and MIT) officially
declared March 19, 2004 to be "Dr. Jonathan David Farley Day".
In 2001-2002, Dr. Farley was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to
the United Kingdom. He was one of only four Americans to win this
award in 2001-2002.
He obtained his doctorate in mathematics from Oxford University in
1995, after winning Oxford's highest mathematics awards, the Senior
Mathematical Prize and Johnson University Prize, in 1994. Professor
Farley graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1991 with
the second-highest grade point average in his graduating class. (He
earned 29 A's and 3 A-'s.)
Professor Farley's fields of interest are lattice theory and the
theory of ordered sets. His mathematical accomplishments in the last
few years include the solution to a problem posed by MIT professor
Richard Stanley that had remained unsolved since 1981, a problem in
"transversal theory" (posed by Richard Rado) that had remained
unsolved for 33 years, and a problem from the 1984 Banff Conference
on Graphs and Order that had remained unsolved for 22 years. Some
of Dr. Farley's previous mathematical accomplishments include the
resolution of a conjecture posed by Richard Stanley in 1975, and the
solution to some problems in lattice theory that remained unsolved
for 34 years.
Professor Farley's work applying mathematics to counterterrorism
has been profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education, in Science
News Online, in The Economist Magazine, in USA Today and Associated
Press newspaper articles across the United States, on Fox News Television,
and on Air America Radio. He is Chief Scientist of Phoenix Mathematics,
Inc., a company that develops mathematical solutions to homeland security-related
problems.
Professor Farley has written for Time Magazine, the New York Times,
and The Guardian (one of Britain's major newspapers). Dr. Farley has
been an invited guest on BBC World News Television, BBC Radio, and
National Public Radio.
Dr. Farley is co-founder of Hollywood Math and Science Film Consulting
(www.hollywoodmath.com). This company has received coverage in the
Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Chicago
Tribune, many other papers in the United States and Canada, the Daily
Telegraph (the British newspaper with the highest circulation), the
Times Higher Education Supplement in Great Britain, BBC Radio's "Midweek"
program, Reader's Digest in Canada, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Radio, Comcast's Nitebeat (which reaches 6.2 million homes) and numerous
websites, including the main page of Yahoo.com and Slashdot. Farley
and his colleagues in HMSFC have been consultants for the hit TV shows
Numb3rs and Medium as well as the movie Flatland starring Martin Sheen
and Kristen Bell.
Refreshments at 4:30 in 657 Rhodes Hall.