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Almost 50 Old Members and friends gathered for the annual ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Society London Lecture on Tuesday. Professor Frances Kirwan, New College Professorial Fellow and Savilian Professor of Geometry, spoke on 'Four Centuries of Geometry in Oxford and ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ', a fascinating journey back in time to look at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ’s mathematicians and their contributions to the sum of human knowledge. Past Savilian Professors of Geometry include John Wallis (1649-1703) who introduced the symbol ∞ to represent infinity, and Edmond Halley (1704-1742) of Halley’s Comet fame, the only comet visible to the naked eye which can be seen twice in a human lifetime.

Alumni and guests enjoyed meeting old friends over drinks and canapés at LSE’s New Academic Building before the lecture began. The evening was also a rare opportunity to admire the magnificent ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ gömböc - a convex three-dimensional homogeneous body which has just one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium when it rests on a flat surface. A physical example had never been created until 2006.