Wednesday, July 14, 2021 - 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Event Calendar Category
Uncategorized
Speaker Name
Persi Diaconis
Affiliation
Stanford
Zoom meeting id
97532827795
Join Zoom meeting
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/97532827795
Abstract
Probabilistic modeling is all over the place. I worry about questions like 'what does the mathematics of probability have to do with the real world?' People don't like that kind of question. They seem to find it an attack, like talking about religion. Hmm, well, too bad. I'll talk about the mathematics of flipping a coin, shuffling cards, generating random numbers, and using MCMC for serious simulation. In all my examples, naive thinking is 'off', you can go make money in casinos or make serious scientific errors.
Biography
Persi Diaconis is a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Stanford University. He is one of the world's most distinguished scholars in statistics and probability. Born into a family of musicians, Diaconis studied violin at Juilliard from ages 5 to 14. At 14, he left home to join legendary magician Dai Vernon on the road. His 10 years as a professional magician led him to study probability and Diaconis completed his BS at City College of New York (1971) and PhD at Harvard (1974). In 1982, he was among the earliest winners of a MacArthur Fellowship. Diaconis is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. His work ranges from applied statistics to abstract probability and is as deep as it is diverse. How many shuffles does it take to randomize a deck of cards? How fair is a coin toss? Please join us in welcoming Persi Diaconis.