Public Lecture: How to Tile the Moon and other Fractal Manifolds
Professor Michael Fielding Barnsley, Australian National University
Walk down the street and you’re bound to find somebody uploading a “selfie” to instagram or twitter.
Fractals are used in digital cameras, placing them everywhere on the internet; from smart phone images to high resolution pictures of the surface of Mars.
Discover how fractals are used to give state-of-the-art cameras variable focal lengths that maintain the original perspective.
In this one- hour free public lecture, Professor Michael Barnsley will introduce us to the exotic world of fractals, from their applications in tiling theory and material science, to coding theory.
“The wild, natural world is full of shapes and forms that can be best described using fractals. Since my first microscope, I have been fascinated by the hidden world revealed by magnification. In this lecture I hope to explain how this magical experience is related to the mathematics of fractals.” Professor Barnsley.
After receiving his BA Mathematics from Oxford, Professor Barnsley went on to complete a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin. He has authored popular science books, Fractals Everywhere and SuperFractals, and appeared in documentaries Is God a Number? and Fractals: The Colors of Infinity.
Professor Barnsley’s work has taken him across the globe, but he now resides in the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University.
This public lecture is the outreach component of the 2014 AMSI Summer School – jointly funded by the Department of Education and the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI).
DETAILS:
Tuesday January 21
6pm-7pm
Manning Clark Theatre 1, Australian National University, Canberra
Media Contact:
Stéphanie Pradier
M: 0424 568 314
E: stephanie@amsi.org.au
