The Mathematics Society was delighted to welcome Professor Imre Leader, of Trinity College, Cambridge, for their inaugural lecture.

He spoke about the Mathematics of Games of Evasion and Pursuit, presenting some intriguing and ingenious solutions to some classic puzzles. The highlight of the talk was a presentation of the infamous Man and Lion problem: can a fugitive Christian in the Coliseum escape from a hungry (equally fast) lion? The historical ‘solution’ to the problem, which stood unchallenged for nearly 50 years, suggested a win for a (sufficiently clever) lion. Professor Leader exposed a subtle flaw in this argument, before presenting an ingenious strategy (due to I Besicovitch) which showed that in fact the man could always evade capture.

The talk was open to all students and generated both a large and enthusiastic audience, mostly drawn from the Sixth Form, but including some keen year nines. The talk required little background knowledge and was thoroughly accessible, yet it swiftly led to some deeply philosophical concepts, including the nature of infinity and the question of what constitutes a valid proof.

‘Why are you interested in these problems?’ a member of the audience asked after the talk. The answer was essentially, ‘because they are fun’. There could have been no better advert for studying Mathematics at university.