Arts & Lectures
2001-2002 Season Lecture Series News Release
For Immediate Release

March 19, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@sa.ucsb.edu

Mathematician Jeffrey Weeks, a leading theorist about the shape of space, in residence at UCSB as Regents’ Lecturer

Summary Facts:

Mathematician and MacArthur Fellow Jeffrey Weeks, a Regents’ Lecturer in the UCSB Department of Mathematics, will present two free public talks “The Shape of Space” on Thursday, April 25 at 7:30 pm in UCSB Corwin Pavilion and “The Curvature of Space” on Tuesday, April 30 in UCSB Corwin Pavilion at 4 pm.

Weeks describes himself as a “freelance mathematician” and holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. The author of The Shape of Space: How to Visualize Surfaces and Three-Dimensional Manifolds, Weeks’ major research interests are geometry, topology, cosmology and education. He develops curricular materials to introduce “finite universes” to middle and high school classes. These materials combine classroom activities, computer games and video to let students explore universes that are finite but have no boundaries.

Weeks has also worked at the University of Minnesota’s Geometry Center to design and implement software that allows the study of possible shapes for three-dimensional space. His most recent project is a collaboration with cosmologists, with whom he plans to test the shape of the universe using satellite data that will become available over the course of this decade.

Weeks’ talks are designed for a general audience. The Thursday, April 25 talk “The Shape of Space” will discuss if the universe is really infinite by considering recent data from NASA satellites. The presentation will use computer games to show how space may be finite, yet have no boundary. Clips from Weeks’ educational video The Shape of Space will take the viewer on a computer-animated tour of several possible shapes for the universe. The lecture will conclude with an explanation of the “Big Bang Theory,” and how the radiation remaining from it may reveal the true shape of our universe. The Tuesday, April 30 talk “The Curvature of Space” will begin with demonstrations to introduce the concept of curvature. It will show how the curvature of the universe is governed by the matter it contains and how this curvature predicts whether the universe will eternally expand or eventually collapse.

Weeks’ public talks are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. His residency at UCSB is made possible by the Regents’ Lectureship program of the University of California. Instituted in 1962 to encourage rare and invaluable interaction between gifted non-academics and the university community, the program has continued to provide campus residencies in sponsoring departments for people with distinguished achievement in the arts, sciences, humanities, business, politics and international affairs.

The final UCSB Regents’ Lecturer for 2001-2002 is Michael C. Tobias, a documentary filmmaker and author who will be in residence in the Environmental Studies Program in May.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.

©2002 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara