FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Captured by Mathematics" to be discussed at Bates Oct. 14

LEWISTON, Maine -- Constance Reid, author of "A Long Way from Euclid" and "From Zero to Infinity," will discuss "Captured by Mathematics" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, in Room 204 of Carnegie Science, Bates College. The public is invited to attend the annual Richard W. Sampson Lecture, and admission is free.

An award-winning biographer of mathematicians, Reid's most recent book, "JULIA, a life in mathematics," is about her sister, Julia Bowman Robinson, the first woman mathematician elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the first woman to serve as president of the American Mathematical Society. The book is the basis for the documentary film "Julia Robinson and the Solving of Hilbert's Tenth Problem."

Reid received the Mathematical Association of America's Bechenbach Prize for her book "The Search for E.T. Bell," which also was awarded the Honorable Mention from the Association of American Publishers, Professional and Scholarly Division, for the best book on mathematics in 1992. In January, 1998, she received the Communications Award from the Joint Policy Board of Mathematics.

The annual Sampson Lecture at Bates is named in honor of Richard W. Sampson of Lewiston, a member of the Bates faculty from 1952 until his retirement as professor of mathematics in 1990.