2000–2001 Ulam Colloquium:
Persi Diaconis

On coincidences

Speaker: Persi Diaconis, Stanford University
Date and time: Monday, March 12, 2001, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
Location: University Auditorium
Introductory remarks: Winfred Phillips, President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School
Cookies and coffee: 3:30 p.m., Little Hall, Room 339 (the Atrium)

Abstract

Coincidences amaze us. They can affect where we live and whom we live with. I will review early work by Jung and Freud. Sometimes, a bit of quantitative thinking will show that things are not so surprising after all.

About the speaker

Persi Diaconis studied violin at Juilliard and magic with Dai Vernon, who has been called the greatest magician in the US. Then he took a degree in mathematics at College of the City of New York and doctorate in statistics at Harvard. He is Mary Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University. He has held visiting positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Harvard, MIT, and Cornell. He was a recipient of a MacArthur Grant.

For more information, see the condensed version of the entry from Mathematical People, edited by Albers and Alexanderson, 1985.

Related materials

• April 2001 CLASnotes on Diaconis Lecture.
• Statistics Department Seminar.
• Invited Address for the Seminar on Stochastic Processes 2001.
• Article about the talk in the Gainesville Sun.