Beneath the arching colors of a rainbow or the delicate swirls of an ice crystal lie complex and beautiful mathematical patterns.

On Oct. 23 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Room of the UWM Student Union, UWM’s College of Letters & Science welcomes John A. Adam from Old Dominion University for the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture in the Natural Sciences. Adam’s talk, “Patterns in Nature: A Treasure Trove for the Curious,” uses stunning visuals and beautiful photographs to introduce us to the science and math behind rainbows, ice crystal halos, water and atmospheric waves, and other natural phenomena.

The presentation is family-friendly, free and open to the public.

In addition, Adam’s books (“Mathematics in Nature,” “A Mathematical Nature Walk” and “Guesstimation: Solving the World’s Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin”) will be sold before and during the lecture by Boswell Book Company. Adam will autograph books after the talk.

Adam has been professor of mathematics at Old Dominion University since 1984. He holds a PhD from the University of London in theoretical astrophysics, and he has broad interests in mathematical modeling and applied mathematics, ranging from mathematical biology to meteorological optics. He is a frequent contributor to Earth Science Picture of the Day.

For more information, contact Deanna Alba, 414-227-2923, dsalba@uwm.edu.