------------------------------------------------------------------------------ B O S T O N U N I V E R S I T Y Computer Science Department V I D E O A N D C O L L O Q U I U M Wednesday, May 21, 1997 Video: 1:30 pm Colloquium: 3:00 pm (Coffee during break at 2:40 pm, Room MCS 137) Room MCS 135 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paul Erd\H{o}s: Friend and Mentor Arthur M. Hobbs Mathematics Department Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77843 hobbs@math.tamu.edu VIDEO: ``N is a Number'' (shown before talk at 1:30, followed by a break) COLLOQUIUM: Dr. Paul Erd\H{o}s, the most prolific mathematician who ever lived and one of the greatest, died last September 20 of a massive heart attack. The speaker is one of Erd\H{o}s's many co-authors and will share some insights into the mind of ``Uncle Paul.'' First he will give answers to two common questions, ``How did Erd\H{o}s come to travel so much and not have a permanent job?'' and ``Did Erd\H{o}s do much significant mathematics or was he merely a very prolific mathematician with lots of co-authors?'' The speaker will then describe Erd\H{o}s as a personal friend and as a friend to mathematicians everywhere. Finally Erd\H{o}s's mentoring of both the speaker and many other mathematicians will be described. The film ``N is a Number'' will be shown to give an example of Erd\H{o}s's lecturing style. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Arthur M. Hobbs is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Texas A\&M University where he has been a faculty member since 1971. he received his BS in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1962 and his PhD in mathematics (graph theory, with Dr. William T. Tutte as advisor) from the University of Waterloo in 1971. He is the author of about 40 papers in graph theory and matroid theory, and he is co-author of a textbook on linear algebra. His recent research has been on packings and coverings of graphs and matroids by trees, and their applications. He co-authored four papers with Dr. Erd\H{o}s. Host: Prof. Peter Gacs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For colloquium info, including directions, see http://www.cs.bu.edu/colloquium For more information contact Prof. David Yates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------