News & Events

“Codes Are Everywhere!”- 2012 Parsons Lecture at UNC Asheville

March 30, 2012

Judy Walker, chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will discuss several types of mathematical codes and their impact upon daily life past and present in the 2012 Parsons Lecture, “Codes are Everywhere!” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 5, in UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Walker will present her ideas so they can be understood by non-mathematicians with no previous experience in coding theory or algebraic geometry. Applying mathematical principles to the challenge of electric transmission of huge amounts of data, coding theory examines efficient ways of packaging data so that errors can be detected, or even corrected.

Walker is co-founder of the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics and has served as an elected member of the Association for Women in Mathematics Executive Committee and the American Mathematical Society Council. She is the recipient of the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award from the Mathematical Association for America, an honor to college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful educators and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions. Walker has conducted multiple projects focusing on women in mathematics and an “All Girls/All Math Summer Camp for High School Girls.”

Each year, UNC Asheville’s Parsons Lecture showcases well-known mathematicians who are able to explain their field of study to a general audience. The lecture is made possible by an endowment from an alumnus in honor of UNC Asheville Professor Emeritus Joe Parsons, who served in the Mathematics Department from 1952 to 1980.

For more information, call UNC Asheville's Mathematics Department at 828/251-6556.