Dr. Colm Mulcahy -- Keynote Speaker

Professor Colm Mulcahy earned a B.Sc and M.Sc. in Mathematical Science from University College Dublin, in Ireland, in the late 1970s.  A few years after getting his PhD from Cornell University in 1985, based on research in the higher level theory of quadratic forms conducted under Alex F.T.W. Rosenberg, he joined the mathematics faculty at Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia.  He's been there ever since, and served as department chair 2003-2006.

Over the years, his interests have expanded to include number theory, geometry, geometric design, image processing and data compression, and he loves to engage undergraduate students in research in these and other areas.  His expository Mathematics Magazine paper "Plotting and Scheming with Wavelets" earned him a Carl B. Allendoerfer Award from the MAA in 1997.

Since 1999, he has taught quantitative reasoning courses extensively, and has become passionate about the importance of all students (mathematics majors too) being well educated in this arena.

He's been hooked on mathematical card tricks for quite a while, and since 2004 has explored mathemagical principles, both old and new, in the bimonthly "Card Colm" for MAA Online.  In December 2009, the New York Times featured one of his card creations in John Tierney's Monday Puzzles blog.

He likes to eat, cook, jog and bike, but not necessarily in that order.

On Friday he''' show how a simple deck of cards and some mathematical ideas can be combined to produce a variety of entertainments ranging from mindreading and predictions to poker effects.