The inaugural lecture of Professor David Craven - Is this statement true?

As part of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series, please join Professor David Craven, Professor of Pure Mathematics, as he delivers his inaugural lecture "Is This Statement True?"

About the lecture

In mathematics, we have the usually helpful distinction of definitely being right about something when we prove it, in contrast to almost every other discipline or endeavour humanity undertakes. While this usually results in our theorems standing for eternity as an indelible part of the edifice of mathematics, there are nevertheless some issues.

There is one small question though: Can you be sure that a result in a paper is true? What does it even mean for a statement to be true? In this talk, Professor Craven will attempt to answer this question from mathematical, philosophical, sociological and technological points of view, touching on results from his own career as examples, among others. He will end with a discussion on how truth and current-generation Large Language Models interact, and how we might be able to nudge them in the right direction.

About the speaker

Professor Craven is a Professor in Pure Mathematics in the School of Mathematics, where he has been based since 2011.

His research interests are primarily in topics associated with the representation theory and subgroup structure of finite groups, and associated fields. In the past he has worked on representations of symmetric groups, infinite group theory, structure of group rings, and physical chemistry.

Programme