Faculty at ODU

A discussion by two of ODU's preeminent faculty highlighting how a university education can serve to create a "larger mind" or "citizen of the world". Featuring John A. Adam, professor of mathematics and statistics and Tim Seibles, associate professor of creative writing.

World-renowned poets Tim Seibles and Philip Raisor read at ODU Virginia Beach Higher Education Center's eighth annual poetry celebration. Seibles, associate professor of English and a nominee for the 2012 National Book Award in Poetry, read poems from his latest work, "Fast Animals." Raisor, professor emeritus of English, read poems from his book "Swimming in the Shallow End." National Poetry Month is a national celebration that was established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996.

John Adam, an Old Dominion University faculty member in mathematics, speaks about his latest book, "X and the City: Modeling Aspects of Urban Life." The book, from Princeton University Press, is designed to answer the question: What has mathematics to say about life in the city? "Mathematics helps us understand how cities and their populations grow - both for people and bedbugs," Adam says in reference to the book. "Or how traffic moves, or doesn't, or how air pollution spreads. This book discusses these topics and many others in short bites, and anyone with a background in basic calculus should find it easily digestible." Adam, who is University Professor of mathematics and statistics at ODU, won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia in 2007 largely because of his reputation for creating ways to make math interesting to the students in his classroom and to the readers of his popular books.

Professor of English Sheri Reynolds reads from her new novel, "The Homespun Wisdom of Myrtle T. Cribb."