Nahin first gives the informal lecture Two Problems in Mathematical Expectation at 4:30 p.m. March 25 in Room 104 of Hathorn Hall, 3 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). Refreshments precede the talk.

At 7:30 p.m., he addresses the topic How Computers Can Help Answer Mathematical Questions in Pettengill Hall’s Keck Classroom, Room G52, 4 Andrews Road.

The lectures are presented under the auspices of the Richard W. Sampson Endowment Fund, which honors the memory of a professor emeritus of mathematics at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Both lectures are open to the public at no cost. For more information please contact 207-753-6993 or hallen@bates.edu.

Nahin joined the electrical and computer engineering faculty at UNH in 1975. He taught courses in probability, logic design, electromagnetic field theory, image processing, minicomputer engineering, pattern recognition, circuit theory and nuclear war technology.

He has published science fiction stories in Analog, Omni and Twilight Zone magazines, and has written 11 books on mathematics and physics. His book Number-Crunching will be published by Princeton University Press this year, and Johns Hopkins reissued his 1997 Time Travel for Writers in February.

He is completing, for publication by Princeton in 2012, the book Electric Logic, treating the works of George Boole and Claude Shannon and how they created the Information Age.

Nahin worked in digital design at Beckman Instruments in Fullerton, Calif., on the programmable simulator of the Gemini manned vehicle; in digital and radar system design and analysis at Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, where he wrote a radar clutter reduction program for the Swiss Air Defense System; and as a military systems analyst for the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Center for Naval Analyses, both in Virginia.

He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a master’s from the California Institute of Technology and a doctorate from the University of California at Irvine, all in electrical engineering. Nahin has taught at Harvey Mudd College and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

The annual Richard W. Sampson Lecture at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ honors the memory of Sampson, who served on the faculty from 1952 until his retirement as professor of mathematics in 1990. He was known for inspiring his students through passionate and creative teaching.

The Haffner Trio, comprised of violinist Esther Haffner, cellist Rudolf Leopold and pianist Teresa Turner-Jones will perform a standard classical repertoire including selections from the composers Mozart and Haydn.

Haffner, a native of Budapest, studied violin at the Budapest Academy of Music and the Vienna Academy of Music. The winner of numerous international competitions including the 1984 Hungarian Young Artists Competition in Budapest and the 1992 Stephanie-Hohl Violin Competition in Vienna, she has appeared in music festivals throughout the world as a concert soloist. Haffner is the 1991 and 1992 recipient of grants from the Alban Berg, the M.S. Janecek and the Zierer foundations in Vienna.

Born in Vienna, Leopold studied at the Vienna Academy of Music. From 1974 to 1983 he performed as a cellist with the Franz-Schubert Quartet. Now a cellist of the Vienna String Sextet, he also solos throughout Europe, the United States and Japan.

A pianist from St. Louis, Turner-Jones studied at Western Michigan University and received a master’s from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Frank Glazer. The recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Grant for vocal and instrumental chamber music in Vienna, she is the winner of several international competitions including the first prize at the chamber music competition “Vittorio Gui” in Florence in 1984. She has recorded and toured throughout the USA, Japan and Europe whre she has been an instructor of chamber music at the Vienna Academy of Music since 1981.

The concert is part of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Concert Series. Further information can be obtained by calling 786-6135.