Owen G. Owens Memorial Lecture Series

Owen G. Owens received a bachelor's upon his graduation from the University of California in 1936. He continued his education there, receiving a master's in mathematics in 1937 followed by a Ph.D. in the same subject in 1941.

Having already taught extensively at various universities since his graduation from the University of California, Owens was appointed to an associate professorship at Wayne State University in 1957, his specialty being partial differential equations. In 1959, Owens was awarded a full professorship and continued at Wayne State University until his retirement and Emeritus appointment in 1969. Professor Owens had professional associations with the American Mathematical Society and was a member of the Society of Sigma Xi, the American Men of Science, and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Upon his death, Dr. Owens' brother, John Owens, left to the Department of Mathematics a contribution in memory of his late brother. The Owen Fund was established and is used to sponsor events in support of the department's research program. The first annual Owen Owens Memorial Lecture was held in March 1992.

* Denotes fields medalist

Year Speaker Topic Institution
2025 Chi-Wang Shu Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Equations and Applications Brown University
2024 Pavel Etingof Lie Theory in Tensor Categories with Applications to Modular Representation Theory Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2023 Anthony Bloch   University of Michigan
2022 Francis Su   Harvey Mudd College
2020 Thaleia Zariphopoulou   University of Texas at Austin
2019 Gilbert Strang   Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2018 Gregory Margulis*   Yale University
2016 Jonathan Borwein   University of Newcastle
2015 Luis A. Caffarelli   University of Texas at Austin
2014 Douglas N. Arnold   University of Minnesota
2013 Neil J. A. Sloane   AT&T Labs
2012 Gang Tian   Princeton University
2011 William Fulton   University of Michigan
2010 Stephen M. Robinson   University of Wisconsin - Madison
2009 John Milnor*   Stony Brook Institute for Mathematical Sciences
2008 Stephen Smale*   Toyota Technical Institute
2007 Robert Devaney   Boston University
2006 Thomas C. Hales   University of Pittsburgh
2005 George C. Tiao   University of Chicago
2004 Sylvain Cappell   Courant Institute
2003 Sun Yun Alice Chang   Princeton University
2002 Michael Waterman   University of Southern California
2001 David Eisenbud   Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
2000 Persi Diaconis   Stanford University
1999 R. Tyrrell Rockafellar   University of Washington
1998 Raoul Bott   Harvard University
1997 Mikhael Gromov   IHES
1996 Efim Zelmanov*   Yale University
1995 Sergey Novikov*   University of Maryland
1994 John H. Conway   Princeton University
1993 Walter Rudin   University of Wisconsin
1992 Louis Nirenberg   New York University