Small fry or big fish? | Gustav Delius & Daniel Meeson | TEDxUniversityofYork
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 17 Jan 2016
Reality is harsh for many people in developing countries.As an example, consider the plight of African fishermen living on the shores of Lake Kariba, trying to feed their families with their daily catch. Because of the intense competition for the lake’s limited fish stocks, they are forced to settle for smaller and smaller fish. In this talk we will describe how a mathematical approach leads to a crucial insight, relevant not only for the Kariba fishermen, but potentially impacting on fisheries policy worldwide.
Delius has worked to describe physical reality at its most fundamental level. This involved fascinating mathematics, in particular infinite-dimensional symmetry algebras in superstring theory and quantum field theory. Recently he has turned from the fundamental to the useful aspects of reality and is currently working on mathematical models of ecological systems. After research jobs in Stony Brook (New York), Boston, Geneva, Bielefeld and London he is now at the Department of Mathematics at the University of York. He enjoys passing on the excitement of mathematics.
Daniel Meeson is studying for his Masters of Mathematics degree, and is very interested in applying this quantitative training to solve real-world problems. He spent his previous summer with the charity WaterAid, helping design surveys that measure the effectiveness of their work building toilets and taps in developing countries. Currently he is applying mathematical methods to small-scale African fisheries.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx