VCU Department of Mathematics
Colloquium Lecture Series
Plane Tilings
Prof. Richard P. Stanley, MIT
Friday April 8, 3:00-4:00
Temple Building, Room 1165
We will survey some of the highlights of the theory of plane tilings, focusing on tiling a
bounded region of the plane with finitely many tiles. A standard example, though not very
mathematical, is a jigsaw puzzle. We consider such questions as the following: (1) Is there a
tiling? (2) How many tilings are there? (3) About how many tilings are there? (4) Is a tiling
easy to find? (5) Is it easy to prove or to convince someone that a tiling doesn't exist? (6)
What does a typical tiling look like? We point out some interesting connections between
tilings and such topics as computer science, continued fractions, probability theory, and
mathematical logic.
Professor Richard P. Stanley
Dr. Stanley is the Norman Levinson Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Dr. Stanley is internationally recognized as a leading expert in combinatorics and its connection to other areas of
mathematics such as algebraic topology, commutative algebra, and representation theory. He is the author of two-volume book
Enumerative Combinatorics, a must have reference in the field with amazing collection of exercises. He is also the author of
Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra and more than 150 research articles. He has served as thesis advisor to more than 50 doctoral
students.
The long list of Dr. Stanley's awards and accolades includes the George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics in 1975 from the Society of
Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Leroy P. Steele Prize in recognition of the completion of his two-volume work Enumerative
Combinatorics in 2001 from the American Mathematical Society, the Rolf Schock Prize in 2003 from the Swedish Academy of Sciences,
Committee on the William Lowell Putnam Competition, 1983-1986 (Chair, 1985-1986), and Senior Scholar, Clay Mathematics Institute.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.