Greek History & Culture Seminars free seminars are (virtually) back!
VIRTUAL OPEN LECTURE: A Brief History of Randomness
From divination and gambling to Modern Probability Theory & Statistics
Location: Facebook Live Stream
Date: THURSDAY – 9 Jul. 2020 @ 7:00pm, (Already passed)
Presenters: Dr Antonios Meimaris
Language of Presentation: English | R.M.L.G.*: 0 – No knowledge of Greek required.
Synopsis
Mythology is filled with stories in which the outcome of a game of chance determined the course of events. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades split the universe through a game of dice, King Nala, as depicted in the Mahabharata, played a game of dice and gambled away his wealth and kingdom, and Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of science, gambled with the Moon and won some moonlight in a game of dice. Humans create gods in their image. Thus, gambling dominates in people’s minds from the first years of their existence on Earth.
However, it is only in the late 15th century that the science of randomness begins to develop. This seminar focuses on the history of randomness and the first attempts for its rigorous mathematicalization that led to the current theory of probability and statistics, which are now used in most scientific fields.
Bio
Antonios is a member of the Stochastic Engineering Dynamics Lab at Columbia University, USA.
His research involves working on stochastic problems with applications covering a wide array of disciplines ranging from the physical-mechanical spectrum to fields such as chemistry, biochemistry and ecology with clear connections with Quantitative Finance. He has been awarded the «Postgraduate Publications Award (PPA)» for his doctoral research and subsequently the «Teaching Excellence Award (Best Ph.D. Teaching Associate)» for his teaching.
To Watch
This lecture has already occurred. To see the recording of this lecture it can be found at this link, enjoy!
Sponsors
We thank the following donor for making this seminar possible: Anastasia Sougleris.
During the course of the year considerable expenses are incurred in staging the seminars. In order to mitigate these costs individuals or organisations are invited to donate against a lecture of their choice.
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