Florin Diacu - Megadisasters

Professor Florin Diacu, of the University of Victoria's, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, will speak on the efforts of scientists to use the tools of mathematics to predict catastrophes, and what we might do to mitigate the damage they cause. This is the second talk in a series of joint Banff Centre/BIRS public lectures, which is part of The Banff Centre's Leading Ideas Speaker Series.

This event will take place in the Rolston Recital Hall, which is in the Music and Sound building (click here for a campus map). It will take place on November 13th, 2013 at 19:30.

Download this video: 201311131930-Diacu.mp4 (250M)

Megadisasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes kill thousands across the world. Striving to understand and predict them has been the life work of scientists and mathematicians for centuries. This talk by Florin Diacu will describe their efforts to model these and related catastrophes, such as economic crashes or the risk of collision with a massive asteroid, and will discuss how we can prepare and defend ourselves when a calamity of this magnitude strikes.

Diacu is a professor at the University of Victoria, where he teaches mathematics and does research in the field of dynamical systems. He is the recipient of the Best Academic Book Award in 2011 for his volume Megadisasters, published with Princeton University Press in North America and Oxford University Press in the rest of the English speaking world.

Video services for this event will be provided by our partner and host, The Banff Centre.