The Robert F. Olin Endowed Distinguished Lecture Series in Science was established and endowed in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences by Robert F. Olin in order to bring speakers to campus to discuss how the sciences have impacted society and humanity, through the lenses of the research of the speaker and others in their field.

Robert F. Olin is an emeritus dean and professor of mathematics. He served the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences from 2000 through 2019.

Inaugural Lecture

Dr. Francis Su, Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College

Lecture Title: “The Mathematics of Human Flourishing”

Speaker Bio
Francis Edward Su is the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and a former president of the Mathematical Association of America. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. His research is in geometric combinatorics and applications to the social sciences and he has co-authored numerous papers with undergraduates. He also has a passion for teaching and popularizing mathematics. From the Mathematical Association of America, he received the 2013 Haimo Award for distinguished teaching and the 2018 Halmos-Ford Award for his writing. His work has been featured in Quanta Magazine, Wired, and The New York Times. His book Mathematics for Human Flourishing (Yale University Press, 2020) won the 2021 Euler Book Prize. It is an inclusive vision of what math is, who it’s for, and why anyone should learn it.