Dr. Jon McCamond, Ph.D., professor of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will be the inaugural speaker Thursday and Friday of Tabor College’s new Frank S. Brenneman Lecture Series at the Solomon L. Loewen Science Center.

The first lecture, “Repetition and Insight,” will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday. The second lecture, “Symmetry and Abstraction,” begins at 11 a.m. Friday.

The public is invited to attend.

The new lecture series was created to honor Frank S. Brenneman, Ph.D., who retired last spring following a 34-year tenure at Tabor College. Brenneman garnered the Mathematical Association of America’s Meritorious Service Award, the Clarence R. Hiebert Excellence in Teaching Award from Tabor College, and an award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

At his retirement celebration, the lectureship endowment was announced, which was established through a fund created by two of his former students, Dr. Brian Wiens and his son, Dr. William Brenneman.

McCammond’s presentation, “Repetition and Insight,” will focus on a connected set of surprises and insights that arise through simple repetition and iteration. This lecture will focus on more advanced mathematics.

Non-mathematicians as well as mathematicians will be intrigued by the second lecture, “Symmetry and Abstraction.”

“This talk will discuss what mathematicians see when they look at a symmetric object, how they abstract out a situation’s essence and what one could possibly mean by the statements, ‘There are only 17 types of wallpaper’,” McCammond said.