Department of Mathematics
1998 TRJITZINSKY LECTURES

The Nineteenth series of lectures on mathematics in memory of Waldemar Trjitzinsky (1901-1973), a professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1934 to 1969, will be delivered this year by Professor Tsit-Yuen Lam of the University of California at Berkeley.

Former Ph.D. students and colleagues of Professor Trjitzinsky donated money to the University of Illinois Foundation to endow the Waldemar Trjitzinsky Memorial Lectures, a biennial series of public lectures on mathematics to be delivered by an outstanding mathematician having a connection to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Tsit-Yuen Lam received his BA from the University of Hong Kong and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He taught one year at the Univeristy of Chicago before joining the faculty at Berkeley in 1968. Lam's academic honors include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Miller Professorship (UIUC), a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and the American Mathematical Society Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition. Lam served several terms as Vice Chairman of the Berkeley Department of Mathematics and was Deputy Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in 1995-97. He is the author of seven books (including two forthcoming ones) and numerous research and expository articles. Lam has diverse interests in algebra ranging from algebraic K-theory, group theory and group representations, ring theory, field theory, quadratic forms, to number theory and combinatorics.

Prof. Lam will present three lectures as follows:

Monday, April 13	Quadratic Forms: Ideas and Examples
Tuesday, April 14	Ring Theory: Ideas and Examples
Wednesday, April 15	Two Great Algebraists: Artin adn Brauer

All lectures will be held at 4 pm in 314 Altgeld Hall.

Coffee and tea will be available 45 minutes before each lecture in 321 Altgeld Hall.

Abstract: In the first two lectures, Prof. Lam will present a few highlights from quadratic form theory and noncommutative ring theory via the use of some key examples. These two lectures will be independent of each other, and will be targeted for a general audience. The third lecture, also intended for a general audience but more historical in nature, will be devoted to a few personal reflections of the speaker on the life and work of Emil Artin and Richard Brauer.