Rare Events
Please be seated at least 15 minutes before the programme begins. Unclaimed seats may be given away to walk-in patrons. Limited walk-in spaces are available at the venue.
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What are rare events? Why do they seem to occur so frequently? Join Emeritus Professor Louis Chen (Department of Mathematics, Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, NUS) in this talk, where he will give examples of rare events associated with catastrophes, lotteries, coincidences, and questions about the existence of extraterrestrial life. He will show that the paradoxically frequent occurrence of rare events can be explained by using the “law of small numbers”.
Rare events also occur in the number system. For example, one can find Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in the number system. He will relate the decimal expansion of the number π (pi) to coin tossing and use it to explain the occurrences of rare events in the number system.
About Critical Conversations:
As part of the Centre For the Arts’ vision to nurture creative minds and inquiring spirits, the NUS Arts Festival presents Critical Conversations - a series of talks and panel discussions aimed at deepening the discourse and engagement with the themes raised during the festival. In particular this year, the programme seeks to present parallels between the arts and mathematics in their shared longing to express answers to humanity’s deepest unsolved questions.
Emeritus Prof Louis Chen
Prof Victor Tan
Emeritus Prof Louis Chen
Emeritus Professor, Department of Mathematics, Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, NUS
Louis Chen received his BSc (Hons) from the University of Singapore in 1964 and his PhD from Stanford University in 1971. He is Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), having been appointed Distinguished Professor from 2013 to 2015 and Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor from 2006 to 2012. He was the Founding Director of the NUS Institute for Mathematical Sciences from 2000 to 2012.
Chen’s research interests are in probability theory and computational biology, focusing largely on Stein’s method. His pioneering work on Poisson approximation, which deals with probabilities of rare events, has wide applications in many areas ranging from molecular biology to computer science. He was President of the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability (1997 - 1999), President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2004-2005), and Vice-President of the International Statistical Institute (2009-2011).
Prof Victor Tan
Moderator
Deputy Head, Department of Mathematics, NUS
Victor Tan is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head in the Department of Mathematics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his B.Sc. (Hons) degree from NUS and Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests are in Algebra and Number Theory. Prof Tan had received multiple awards for excellent teaching at the faculty as well as the university level, including the Outstanding Educator Award which is the highest recognition for teaching at NUS. He is also a Fellow of the NUS Teaching Academy. Currently, Prof Tan is President of the Singapore Mathematical Society and has organised a wide range of math activities for school teachers and students.