Michael Starbird.

Michael Starbird, a mathematician from the University of Texas at Austin who has given hundreds of lectures and dozens of workshops on effective teaching and effective thinking, offers a lecture at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ titled The Five Elements of Effective Thinking at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ mathematics department, the annual Richard W. Sampson Lecture is open to the public at no cost. A reception follows. For more information, please call 207-755-5978.

Starbird is the University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics at Austin. He has received more than 15 teaching awards including the Mathematical Association of America’s 2007 national teaching award, the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor statewide award, the UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and most of the UT-wide teaching awards.

Starbird co-authored, with Edward Burger, the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking (Key College, 1999); and, for mainstream readers, The Five Elements of Effective Thinking (Princeton University Press, 2012).

He has produced DVD courses for The Teaching Company in the Great Courses Series on calculus, statistics, probability, geometry and the joy of thinking. He also produced an edX Massive Open Online Course titled Effective Thinking Through Mathematics.

The annual Sampson Lecture honors the late Professor Richard W. Sampson, who taught math at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for 38 years.

Leila Schneps.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ presents lecturers offering insight into mathematics and medical technology on Feb. 26 and 28.

Leila Schneps, a mathematician specializing in number theory (and moonlighting as a murder-mystery author), gives two talks under the auspices of the Sampson Lecture Series on Feb. 26. At 4:30 p.m., she gives the technical talk Multiple Zeta Values: Crossroads of Number Theory, Geometry and Algebra in Room 104 of Hathorn Hall, 3 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

In an event aimed at a mainstream audience, she gives a lecture titled Math on Trial: Probability in the Judicial Process at 7:30 p.m. in the Benjamin E. Mays Center, 95 Russell St.

Robert S. Langer, one of the best-known figures in engineering, offers two lectures on Friday, Feb. 28, under the auspices of the George S. Hammond ’43 D.Sc. ’73 Eminent Scientist Lectures, sponsored by the chemistry department.

He gives the technical lecture Novel Drug Delivery Systems and the Application of High Throughput Approaches to Drug Delivery and Stem Cell Technologies at 4:10 p.m. in Room 119, Dana Chemistry Hall, 5 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

At 7:30 p.m., Langer delivers a talk for the lay audience titled Biomaterials for the 21st Century and How They Will Change Our Lives in Olin Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

All four lectures are open to the public at no cost, but tickets are required for the Langer evening event, available at .

For more information about the Schneps talks, please call 207-755-5978. For more information about the Langer appearances, please call 207-786-6292.

An American mathematician, Schneps is a researcher at the French National Scientific Research Center, specializing in number theory and algebraic geometry.

She has a long-standing interest in the mathematical aspects of crime detection, focusing on ways in which math — through both the correctness of its application and the manner of its presentation by expert witnesses — can influence trial outcomes and lead judge and jury toward the truth, or away from it.

Inventor Robert Langer. (Donna Coveney/MIT)

Schneps and her daughter, Coralie Colmez, co-wrote Math on Trial: How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom (Basic Books, 2013). They are members of the Bayes in Law Research Consortium, an international team devoted to improving the use of probability and statistics in criminal trials.

Writing as Catherine Shaw, Schneps has also published several murder mystery novels, set in the legendary mathematics department of Cambridge University in the 19th century and built around a real math problem that tested the greatest minds of the time.

The annual Sampson Lecture honors the late Professor Richard W. Sampson, who taught math at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for 38 years.

Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (an Institute Professorship being the highest honor that can be awarded to an MIT faculty member). Langer received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2011.

Langer’s work has led to products that treat cancer, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia, among other diseases. MIT’s Langer Laboratory is on the front lines of turning research discoveries into drugs and drug delivery systems.

Langer has written more than 1,230 articles and has some 512 patents issued worldwide. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to more than 250 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He has received more than 220 major awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers.

The Hammond Eminent Scientist Lecture Fund is given in honor of George S. Hammond by his associates and students from Iowa State College under the guidance of Jay K. Kochi. The fund supports lectures by scientists specifically chosen by students and faculty in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ chemistry department. Hammond, who died in 2005, is widely credited with creating the discipline of organic photochemistry.

Colin C. Adams.

In a pair of lectures at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, mathematician Colin Adams will explore the ins and outs of knots.

The Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, Adams will combine laughs and math as he assumes the character of Sir Randolph Bacon III for the presentation Blown Away: What Knot to Do When Sailing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26, in the Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St. A reception follows.

Earlier that day, for math aficionados, Williams offers the lecture Triple Crossing Number of Knots at 4:30 p.m. in Room 104 of Hathorn Hall, 3 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). Refreshments in Room 209 will precede the talk at 4 p.m.

The evening event is the annual Sampson Lecture at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, sponsored by the Richard W. Sampson Lecture Fund. For more information, please call 207-755-5978.

Intended for math enthusiasts, Adams’ afternoon lecture explores the nature and ramifications of crossings within knots.

No nautical or mathematical background is assumed for the evening presentation, which Adams describes as “a tale of adventure on the high seas involving great risk to the tale teller, and how an understanding of the mathematical theory of knots saved his bacon.” Adams incorporates props and other stagecraft into this fun interactive event.

Adams received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983. He is particularly interested in the mathematical theory of knots, their applications and their connections with hyperbolic geometry. He is the author of The Knot Book (Freeman & Company, 1994), an elementary introduction to the mathematical theory of knots; and co-author with Joel Hass and Abigail Thompson of How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide and How to Ace the Rest of Calculus: the Streetwise Guide (both Times Books; 1998 and 2001, respectively), humorous supplements to calculus.

The annual Sampson Lectures honor the memory of the late Richard W. Sampson, who served on the faculty from 1952 to 1990. He was admired for his passionate and creative teaching.

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.

Jennifer J. Quinn, executive director of the Association for Women in Mathematics, presents two lectures at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College on Friday, Nov. 10. At 4 p.m., she gives a talk titled Synchronicity: Alternating Sums, Determinants, Continued Fractions and More. At 7:30 p.m., in the college’s annual Richard W. Sampson Lecture, her subject is “Fabulous Fibonacci Numbers.”

Sponsored by the mathematics department, both talks are open to the public at no cost and take place in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road. For more information, please call the college concierge at 207-786-6255.

In addition to her position with the Association for Women in Mathematics, Quinn is on the mathematics faculties at Occidental College, Los Angeles, and the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University, both in Tacoma, Wash. She is also co-editor of the Mathematical Association of America’s magazine, Math Horizons.

Quinn has received regional and national awards as a teacher, scholar and author. Most recently, the Mathematical Association of America honored her with one of its three 2007 Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Awards for distinguished teaching. Her book Proofs That Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof, coauthored with Arthur T. Benjamin (Mathematical Association of America, 2003), received the MAA’s Beckenbach Book Prize.

Quinn earned her bachelor’s degree at Williams College, master’s at the University of Illinois at Chicago and doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Tacoma.

The annual Richard W. Sampson Lecture at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ honors the memory of Sampson, professor emeritus of mathematics, known for inspiring his students through his passionate and creative teaching.

Reid is an award-winning biographer of mathematicians. Her most recent book, Julia: A Life in Mathematics (Mathematical Association of America, 1997), is about her sister, Julia Bowman Robinson, the first woman mathematician elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the first woman to serve as president of the American Mathematical Society. The book is the basis for the documentary film Julia Robinson and the Solving of Hilbert’s Tenth Problem.

Reid received the Mathematical Association of America’s Bechenbach Prize for her book The Search for E.T. Bell (Mathematical Association of America, 1993), which also received an honorable mention from the Association of American Publishers, Professional and Scholarly Division, for the best book on mathematics in 1993. In January 1998, she received the Communications Award from the Joint Policy Board of Mathematics.

The annual Sampson Lecture at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is named in honor of Richard W. Sampson of Lewiston, a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty from 1952 until his retirement as professor of mathematics in 1990.