The University of Southern Maine (USM) Department of Mathematics and Statistics hosted Dr. James Dibble for a Mathematics & Statistics Colloquium on April 14, 2026, in Luther Bonney Hall on the Portland campus.
Dr. Dibble presented “Distortion from Spheres into Euclidean Spaces,” examining how mathematical functions can change distances between points in different geometric spaces.
The talk explored lower bounds on the distortion of functions mapping a round sphere into Euclidean space of the same dimension. Along the way, Dr. Dibble introduced the geometry of simplices, including triangles and their higher-dimensional generalizations, and discussed connections to classical results in fixed-point theory and topology.
The presentation included the famous Borsuk-Ulam theorem, illustrating connections between geometry, topology, and the study of mappings between spaces.
The Mathematics & Statistics Colloquium provides a forum for exploring current research and mathematical ideas across a range of disciplines.