Humans play games. Sometimes we roll the dice, or buy lottery tickets – sometimes we play chess, or mind games of manipulation. History gives us two examples of the development of new mathematical ideas and directions from our playful habits: games of chance, which led to the formulation of Probability Theory, and games of strategy, which led to Game Theory. I will discuss how these two theories come together to provide a mathematical approach to conflict and other interactions for populations in biology, economics, and other situations where simple optimization does not explain what we see. Along the way, we will grapple with the challenges of cancer, and the dynamics of social media.

Preceded by Free Reception at 4 PM in the SAS Hall Atrium