Have you always wondered why Chinese New Year, the end of Ramadan, Deepavali and Easter Sunday fall on different days each year? Then this is the talk for you! We will give an overview of the Chinese, Islamic and Indian calendars and compare them with the Gregorian calendar. We will also discuss the relationship between mathematics and astronomy and various historical and cultural aspects of the calendars.
Helmer Aslaksen was born in Oslo, Norway, and received his undergraduate degree at the University of Oslo. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Department of Mathematics at the National University of Singapore in 1989. His interests include geometry, Lie groups, and relationship between mathematics, astronomy and art. He has been academic advisor for the exhibition Art Figures: Mathematics in Art at the Singapore Art Museum, and The Dating Game: Calendars and Time in Asia at the Asian Civilization Museum, and for the TV series Ancient Chinese Inventions on the Discovery Channel. He was also on the Program Committee and a judge for The Great Science Challenge, a TV Science Quiz for secondary school students. In 2004 he was awarded the University's Outstanding Educator Award.
