[381] Vanderbilt's Edelman Brings Distinguished Lecture to MTSU March 24

Release date: March 23, 2010


News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Math department contact: Dr. Xiaoya Zha, 615-898-2494 or xzha@mtsu.edu

Vanderbilt’s Edelman Brings Distinguished Lecture to MTSU March 24


(MURFREESBORO, TN) – Dr. Paul H. Edelman, professor of mathematics and law at Vanderbilt University, will appear for an MTSU Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, March 24.
Edelman will discuss “From Census to Seats: How to Apportion the House of Representatives in the New Decade.” His presentation will be from 3 to 4 p.m. in Keathley University Center Room 322. The event is free and open to the public and MTSU community.
“Professor Edelman is a leading scholar in this area,” said Dr. Xiaoya Zha, professor in the MTSU Department of Mathematical Sciences and event coordinator. “His research has been reported by two articles in the Wall Street Journal.”
In a flier about the lecture, Edelman asks, “How many seats should each U.S. state get?” Then he adds, “It isn’t simple.”
Edelman said that since the founding of the United States, "the decennial ritual of apportioning representatives among the states to the House has generated controversy. Four distinct methods have been tried, and more have been suggested. It has been the subject of political feuds, mathematical feuds, legal challenge and perorations to God. It is also an excellent example of how mathematics can illuminate the law and how law can motivate mathematics.”
“In this talk,” Edelman writes of his presentation, “I will give a crash course in the theory or apportionment. I will discuss the different approaches to apportionment and how they relate to each other. After some discussion of the history of the apportionment of the House, I will show how developments in the law point to new methods of apportionment that have never been employed and the surprising implications they have for the make-up of the House."

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Media welcomed.
With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.


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