Alan McRae to Deliver Endowed Professorship Lecture McRae’s presentation “Waiting for Gödel” will be held in Chavis Hall on March 22.

By Emily Innes
March 14, 2023

Alan McRae, professor of mathematics, will present a public lecture to mark his appointment to the Cincinnati Professorship at Washington and Lee University on March 22 at 6 p.m. in Chavis Hall 105.

Titled “Waiting for Gödel,” McRae’s lecture explores the absurd and contradictory in mathematics and gives a glimpse of what the future might hold.

“It’s common to think that there is no place for the absurd or contradictory in mathematics, but in fact, mathematics has a long history of dealing with paradoxes, the impossible, and other ‘non-mathematical’ possibilities,” McRae said. “Join us for an hour of the crazy, the absurd, and the downright impossible, and hear a story about how the forces of imagination and logic have transformed mathematics over and over.”

McRae has been a member of the W&L faculty since 1997 and currently serves as the chair of the Mathematics Department. His research interests include geometric probability, logic, mathematics and art. He has authored or co-authored publications for notable mathematics journals and has been a member of Pi Mu Epsilon, the U.S. honorary national mathematics society, since 1998. McRae received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a doctorate in mathematics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The Cincinnati Professorship recognizes the gift of the Society of the Cincinnati of Virginia to Washington Academy, a predecessor to W&L. In 1802, the Society – a group of former officers of the Continental Army who were influenced by George Washington’s gift to the Academy – voted to turn over its assets to the school, and the gift helped the institution survive.

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