Science Seminar Series: Visualizing Set Theory with Erin Carmody, SLC Guest Faculty in Mathematics

Set Theory revolutionized mathematics, starting with Georg Cantor's work on infinity. This talk will be about 4 important topics in set theory: ordinals, cardinals, the cumulative hierarchy, and the axioms and how to visualize each of them. We will see art from around the world depicting ordinals, including art from Sarah Lawrence students. We will also look at some of the larger infinities -- large cardinals -- in particular, the worldly cardinals and the inaccessible cardinals.

Erin Carmody received her PhD in Mathematics from the CUNY Graduate Center, focusing on research in set theory. After graduating, she held visiting professor positions at Nebraska Wesleyan University and Emory University, and was a lecturer at Fordham University. She is currently a guest faculty member in Mathematics at Sarah Lawrence College.