Taft Lectures

Brownian motion was originally observed by Robert Brown who was examining pollen grains suspended in water under a microscope. This is an example of a random or stochastic process, which found many applications: from describing the random erratic movement of molecules in physics to modelling the behavior of financial markets.  In 1905 Einstein made a detailed study of the Brownian motion in which he postulated certain properties (axioms) that should hold.  In 1923 mathematical Brownian motion was born when a famous mathematician, Norbert Wiener, showed how to construct a random function W(t) describing the molecules position at time t which satisfied Einstein's axioms.  We will talk about the fascinating history of the Brownian motion and its applications, including some recent developments.  

Refreshments will be served before the lecture, 3:15-3:45pm in the Math Faculty & Graduate Student Lounge Room 4118 French Hall West