Steven J. Brams will give a colloquium talk on “Mathematics and Democracy - How Democracy Resolves Conflict in Difficult Games”, in 100 Wolf Hall at 2 PM on Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

The colloquium is part of the activities dedicated to the Mathematics Awareness Month, with this year’s theme on “Mathematics and Voting”. Mathematics Awareness Month, held each year in April, was created to increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. It began in 1986, when President Reagan issued a proclamation establishing National Mathematics Awareness Week. Activities for Mathematics Awareness Month generally are organized on local, state and regional levels by college and university departments, institutional public information offices, student groups, and related associations and interest groups. http://www.mathaware.org/mam/08/

Steven Brams is a Professor of Politics at New York University and the author, co-author, or co-editor of 16 books and about 250 articles. His recent books include Theory of Moves (1994) and co-authored with Alan D. Taylor, Fair Division: From Cake-Cutting to Dispute Resolution (1996) and The Win-Win Solution: Guaranteeing Fair Shares to Everybody (1999). His latest book, Mathematics and Democracy: Designing Better Voting and Fair-Division Procedures, appeared in 2008.

Brams has applied game theory and social-choice theory to voting and elections, bargaining and fairness, international relations, and the Bible and theology. He is a former president of the Peace Science Society (1990-1991) and the Public Choice Society (2004-2006). He has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1986, a Guggenheim Fellow (1986-1987), and a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation (1998-1999). http://politics.as.nyu.edu/object/stevenbrams.html

Brams' visit is co-sponsored by the Department of Mathematical Sciences, the Department of Political Science and International Relations and the College of Human Resources, Education and Public Policy.