Professors
Present Annual Research Lecture Series
Posted March 22, 2000
Alexandre Chorin, professor of mathematics, chancellor's professor and senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, will present the second faculty research lecture for 2000. Chorin will speak on "How to Put Guesswork Back into Computing" at 4 p.m., April 5, in Wheeler Auditorium.
Chorin's lifelong interest is in the interaction of mathematics and the physical sciences, with emphasis on the computational and mathematical problems of fluid mechanics, and of turbulent flow in particular.
His methods belong to the intersection of computing, differential equations, probability and physics, which he hopes will help solve other problems where randomness and order coexist.
In recent years, Chorin and his collaborators have been developing mathematical models of turbulence and using experimental data to reveal hidden features of turbulence. They hope to use the information obtained in this way to reduce the complexity of the computing needed for turbulence.
Chorin was born in 1938 in Warsaw, Poland, and grew up in Israel and Switzerland. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received the National Academy's award in applied mathematics and numerical analysis. He joined Berkeley's math department in 1971.
The Academic Senate each year selects a faculty member or members distinguished for scholarly research in their chosen field of study to present the annual Faculty Research Lecture.
Anthony Long, professor of classics and Irving Stone Professor of Literature, presented the first Faculty Research Lecture of 2000. Long spoke March 7 on "Ancient Philosophy's Hardest Question: What to Make Oneself."
Born in 1937 in Manchester, England, Long received his Ph.D. at the University of London. From 1973 to 1983, he held the Gladstone Chair of Greek at the University of Liverpool, and has since taught and lectured at numerous institutions in the U.S. and abroad. He joined Berkeley's classics department in 1983, and holds an adjunct appointment in rhetoric as well.
Throughout Long's career, his research and teaching have straddled Greek and Roman literature and philosophy. Starting with his first book, "Language and Thought in Sophocles," winner of the Cromer Greek prize of the British Academy, he has published studies of many Greek authors.
But he has increasingly focused on ancient philosophy, especially the post-Artistotelian philosophers. Long also maintains a strong interest in the beginnings of Greek philosophy. His research has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. This year he holds a President's Research Fellowship in the Humanities.
March 22 - April 5,
2000 (Volume 28, Number 26)
Copyright 2000, The Regents of the University of
California.
Produced and maintained by the Office
of Public Affairs
at UC
Berkeley.
Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.