Events
Michalik Lecture Speaker
We were excited to welcome Professor Diane Henderson on October 15, to give the 2021 Michalik Lecture on “Understanding Nonlinear Surface Water Waves on Deep Water." Dr. Henderson is a professor of mathematics at Penn State and director of the Pritchard Fluid Dynamics Lab, one of the only experimental laboratories to be housed in a mathematics department. Her talk described her resolution of a longstanding mystery in wave motion. Professor Henderson recounted seeing in her 5th grade science class the documentary “Waves Across the Pacific” (still available on the web). This film documents how waves generated by Antarctic storms travel from Antarctica across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska with nearly no loss of energy. Mathematical analysis of these waves had accumulated a series of famous papers proving that this (observed) travel was impossible! The resolution of this paradox was provided only recently by Professor Henderson. Her talk was an inspiring and enlightening presentation of how mathematics advances and contributes to human development by resolving the deep mysteries of the world around us.
https://www.mathematics.pitt.edu/about/edmund-r-michalik-distinguished-l....