Celebration of Mind

MonthName Day, Year

Ed Pegg Jr, Scientific Information Group

Back on May 27, we wrote a remembrance of Martin Gardner. He would have been 96 on October 21, which has prompted the worldwide event, Celebration of Mind.

If you look at the event map, you'll see the locations for over 50 events. Some of the 30 event locations in the United States include:

• Stanford University, to which Martin donated all his mathematical correspondence;

• MAA headquarters in Washington, DC;

• Magic Castle, in Los Angeles;

• and Fort Lauderdale, with an event hosted by James Randi.

Here is an ambigram with the event logo, which was designed by Scott Kim. The logo is rotationally symmetric.

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There are also events planned in Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, China, England, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Scotland, Serbia, and Spain.

Locally, Wolfram Research has teamed up with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for our own event, to be held Thursday, October 21, 4pm–7pm at the Siebel Center, room 2405.

We plan to have a series of short talks by a dozen local mathematicians and computer scientists, including myself.

Quoting Gardner: "In 1974 Edward M. Reingold, a computer scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his student, James Bitner, made an exhaustive computer search of the order-70 square for a perfect tiling with the set of 24 squares," (from Mathematical Carnival, p. 148). Also, the four-color theorem was proved in Urbana-Champaign. Both seemed appropriate for our event flyer.

If you'll be in the Urbana-Champaign area that day, we'd be glad to have your company. If you'll be somewhere else in the world, check the event map to see if there is a local math event near you.