Dr. Van Brummelen received his Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University in 1993. His expertise is in ancient and medieval mathematics and astronomy. He is especially interested in trigonometric methods in ancient Greek, medieval Islamic, and medieval European astronomy. Recently he has been working as a member of the European Research Council-funded team ALFA (Alfonsine Astronomy), exploring the development of spherical astronomy in medieval and early Renaissance Europe and its links to Greek and Islamic predecessors. His research has recently uncovered the beginning of the modern tangent and arc sine functions, and he is currently exploring the origin of our modern decimal positional numeration in the astronomical tables of the 15th century.

Among his publications, he is the author of several books, “The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry” (Princeton, 2009), “Heavenly Mathematics: The Forgotten Art of Spherical Trigonometry” (Princeton, 2013) which was shortlisted for the Neumann Prize and chosen as Outstanding Title of 2013 by Choice Magazine, and “Trigonometry: A Very Short Introduction” (Oxford, 2020).

He has twice served as president of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics. Prior to joining the faculty at Trinity Western University, he was a founding faculty member and mathematics division coordinator of Quest University Canada. He won the Mathematical Association of America’s Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2016, and the 3M National Teaching Fellowship in 2017. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ from 2019 to 2020 and has received several fellowships including Senior Fellowship at the Dibner Institute for History of Science and Technology at MIT, 2005-2006.

See https://www.twu.ca/profile/glen-van-brummelen for further details about Dr. Van Brummelen's work.

The Harry S. Kieval Lecture Series is presented by the Cal Poly Humboldt Department of Mathematics and named for Humboldt Mathematics Professor Emeritus Dr. Harry S. Kieval. Dr. Kieval taught at Humboldt from 1966 to 1979; the series includes topics on popular and/or broad aspects of mathematics attractive to undergraduates and the public.