Volumes, the MoMath book club

Thursday, November 11 at 6:30 pm ET (New York)

(online)

Volumes returns!  Join Distinguished Visiting Professor Steven Strogatz for an online discussion of the book Adventures of a Mathematician by S. M. Ulam.

The book is a thought-provoking account of Stanislaw Ulam, a brilliant 30-year-old Polish Jewish mathematician and bon vivant who fled Europe in the 1930s and, through his friendship with Hungarian genius Johnny von Neumann, found himself accepting a mysterious job in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  Surrounded by young, eccentric, charismatic immigrant scientists, Stan begins top secret work for the Manhattan Project while also making impressive contributions to mathematics and computer science.

Steve will be accompanied by special guest George Dyson, who served as Science Advisor to the motion picture adaptation of this book.  George is an independent historian of technology whose subjects have included the evolution of artificial intelligence (Darwin Among the Machines, 1997) and why analog computing has returned (Analogia, 2020).  Steve will also be joined by special guests Stephen Wolfram, who knew Stan Ulam personally, and Rebecca Weiner, Stan Ulam's granddaughter.

Order your book today from Additions, the shop at MoMath, and help support the nation's only Museum of Math while also scoring free admission to an engaging conversation about Stan Ulam and the mathematics he loved.  Just place your order online or stop by the shop, then forward or email an image of your receipt to additions@momath.org and you will be registered, free of charge, for this interesting group discussion hosted on Zoom.

This is an online-only event; all registrants will be participating remotely.  Occasional video recordings are made available for a fee at videos.momath.org.