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Title: The Mathematics Mystery

Abstract: "Everyone knows" that mathematics is extremely useful in all sciences (nowadays even in
"soft" ones), engineering, geology, you name it. Not that many of us, though, have thought of "why"
this is happening. When one does start asking this question, the thing looks more and more
mysterious. In this lecture, I will discuss this puzzle (well, do not expect me to solve it) on
many fascinating historical examples.

About the speaker: Peter Kuchment is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Texas
A&M University. His research interests include partial differential equations, mathematical
physics, and integral geometry and their applications. He has made seminal contributions in the
areas such as computed tomography, quantum graphs, differential equations, and photonic crystals,
for which he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, American Mathematical Society,
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics, and the American Physical Society. He is also a Senior Member of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2015).

He is the author of over 200 papers and books and has delivered numerous lectures and lecture
series around the world. Kuchment is also interested in enhancement of K-12 education: he is the
founding director of the SMaRT summer math camp, has co-founded Texas A&M's Math Fest, and
co-directed a correspondence math program for middle- and high school students at the Wichita State
University in Kansas.

Kuchment received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Kharkov University (Ukraine) in 1973 and his Doctor
of Science degree from the Mathematics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1983.