#97-03-18
For Release: March 24, 1997
Contact: Peter Bailley

Mathematician Roger Howe, of Yale University, will give the Phi Beta Kappa Lecture, "Symmetry in the World," at 4 p.m. Friday, April 4, in Room A-106, Umbeck Science-Mathematics Center at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.

In addition to the Phi Beta Kappa Lecture, which is intended for general audiences, Howe also will give an academically-oriented lecture, "Complex Numbers and Euclidean Geometry," at 4 p.m., Thursday, April 3, in Room A-219, Umbeck Science-Mathematics Center. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Howe has taught mathematics at Yale since 1974 and has published numerous articles in scientific journals. His work deals primarily with symmetry -- the study of patterns of geometric regularity in a wide variety of phenomena, from crystal structures in chemistry to fractals in mathematics and data compression in computer science.

The lectures are sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program. The program provides for lectures by distinguished scholars at approximately 100 colleges and universities annually. The Knox College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, a national academic honor society, was founded in 1916, the oldest at a liberal arts college in Illinois.

Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.