KEYNOTE SPEAKERS |
Wednesday Keynote: Latrenda Knighten
Thursday Keynote: Eugenia Cheng Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician and concert pianist. She is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and won tenure at the University of Sheffield, UK. She 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.” Eugenia was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed over 20 million times to date. She has also assisted with mathematics in elementary, middle, and high schools for over 20 years. Her first popular math book How to Bake Pi was featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert; Beyond Infinity was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017; she has also written two children’s books, and her books have been translated into 17 languages. She writes the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal, and has completed mathematical art commissions at Hotel EMC2, 6018 North, the Lubeznik Center, the Cultural Center, Chicago, and EXPO Chicago. She is also a composer, and has been commissioned by GRAMMY nominated soprano Laura Strickling, and in 2022-2023 is a composer for Lynx Project Amplify, which commissions songs setting poetry by primarily non-speaking autistic poets. Eugenia is the founder of the Liederstube, an intimate oasis for art song based in Chicago. Her most recent book Is Math Real? was published in 2023 and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Science & Technology category.Friday Keynote: Ron Lancaster
A prolific contributor to the field, Ron has authored or edited over 150 articles for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), including pieces for Mathematical Lens and Media Clips. Ron is passionate about exploring the world through the lens of mathematics. He enjoys "coddiwompling" (wandering without a fixed destination) and finds mathematical patterns in the most unexpected places. Always equipped with his math glasses and camera, he captures the numbers, shapes, curves, and shadows he encounters on his walks, finding beauty in the mathematical structure of the world around him. He was honoured with the 2015 Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award in Mathematics Education, presented by the Fields Institute. |