Department of Mathematical Sciences
Colloquium Series
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The Department of Mathematical Sciences is pleased to present a special Colloquium talk for
Math Awareness Week:
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Is fair voting and apportionment possible?
A mathematical look
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Michael de Villiers
University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa &
Kennesaw State University, Georgia
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Michael de Villiers is co-author of Is Democracy Fair?, and was inspired to draft this book by the first democratic elections in 1994 in his home country of South Africa, where he teaches mathematics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. As he watched his country emerge from apartheid and, in its formative democratic stage, struggle with deciding on the "best" systems of voting and apportionment, de Villiers examined the many options that exist and the role mathematics plays in political representation. The talk will have three objectives:
- To demonstrate how mathematics applies to the analysis of problems in the seemingly non-mathematical areas of social and political science
- To challenge the stereotype that mathematics is of value only in certain applied sciences, such as physics, chemistry, and computer science
- To raise voter education awareness by exposing them to a variety of election decision procedures and methods of apportionment and their strengths and weaknesses
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Monday, 14 April 2008
4:10 p.m. in NULH
3:30 p.m. Refreshments in Math Lounge 109
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Michael de Villiers' visit is supported by
a gift from
Dr. Frank Gilfeather '64.
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