Events Calendar

Professor Don Saari's lecture poses the question:  We vote: but can we elect someone we really don't want?

In some elections, it is debatable whether the "winner" is who the voters really wanted.  As the "winner" can affect the future of an organization, whether a fraternity, sorority, academic department, city, county, state, or country, the consequences can be serious.  Saari will describe how the power of mathematics is beginning to identify those persistent villains that lead us astray -- our choice of voting methods.  

Saari is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics, and Director of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Saari’s research interests range from mathematical astronomy (e.g., evolution of the universe, dark matter, collisions) to the mathematics of voting and decision rules.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Science, and a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.