Chaotic Elections! A Mathematician Looks at Voting

Scope Lecture, Saturday, October 11 Donald Saari, University of California-Irvine Donald Saari, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics and director of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California-Irvine, will present this years Scope Lecture. He is also the inaugural speaker for the Department of Mathematics Distinguished Lecture Series. It would be difficult to find a more appropriate keynote presenter than Saari for this years Scope Academy. Widely cited in both academic and popular publications as an expert in voting methods, Saari will visit NC State a few short weeks before the all-important 2008 presidential election to discuss whether election outcomes really capture the will of the voters. The author of 11 books, Saari is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a Guggenheim Fellow; past chair of the US National Committee of Mathematics; and past chief editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. He has received honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Université de Caen, and Michigan Technological University. A native of Michigans Upper Peninsula, Saari received his BS in mathematics from Michigan Technological University and his MS and PhD in mathematics from Purdue University. He was a member of the faculty at Northwestern University for more than three decades before moving to UC-Irvine in 2000, where he continues his research in areas including the n-body problem, the Borda count, and the application of mathematics to the social sciences. Committed to excellence in teaching as well as research, Saari is particularly proud of his numerous teaching awards, including being selected twice by Northwestern students as the universitys Most Influential Professor.