Department of Mathematics: Fleming Lecture Series

Something about Poisson and Dirichlet and the necessity of complex numbers in Math and Science

With Dr. Steven R. Bell from Purdue University

I will illustrate how humans have been compelled to use complex numbers to understand nature by focusing on a period in history when my mathematical ancestors, Simeon-Denis Poisson and Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, made important breakthroughs in basic Science using calculus with complex numbers. As a descendent of those two who has developed a major lazy streak, I will show how quick and easy these breakthroughs become with 200 years of hindsight.