Shenzhen University School of Mathematical Sciences  

Liyuan Scholars Colloquium Session 179

Title: High School Algebra Made More Interesting

Speaker: Professor Marcel Jackson (La Trobe University)

Time: 14:00–15:00, September 11, 2026

Location: Room 4, Huixing Building, Yuehai Campus, Shenzhen University

Abstract:  I’m sure that High School Algebra was already very interesting but in this talk we hope to make it even more interesting by uncovering a simple question with surprising solution and connections to a range of open problems in mathematics.

In the 1960s, the famous logician Alfred Tarski asked whether the usual laws for addition, multiplication and exponentiation are sufficient to derive all true laws for these operations.  Equivalently: is there some other true law in these operations that is not a consequence of the ones we teach our high school students?  

Surprisingly, the answer is yes, there really are such laws and in fact there are infinitely many of them, each not a consequence of the earlier ones.  

How does one even prove that one law is not a consequence of another?  How do we even know when a given law is true?  These types of questions lead us to the mysterious world of finite models of high school algebra as well as number theoretic questions such as is e^(e^(e^(e^e))) an integer?  

Speaker Profile: Professor Marcel Jackson currently serves as Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Research in the School of Computing, Engineering, and Mathematical Sciences at La Trobe University in Australia, and is a key academic faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Physical Sciences. In addition, Professor Jackson serves on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Expert Committee (2023–2025), is Treasurer of the Australian Algebraic Society, and holds key editorial positions at leading international journals, including Co-Editor-in-Chief of *Algebra Universalis* (in the field of universal algebra) and Associate Editor of *Semigroup Forum* (in the field of semigroup theory).

Professor Jackson’s research focuses primarily on algebra and its intersections with logic, combinatorics, and theoretical computer science. He leads an ARC Discovery Project as the Lead Principal Investigator (Lead CI). Additionally, he is the principal investigator of the “Pan-Algebra and Its Applications Research Group.” This research group has organized numerous academic conferences at La Trobe University, including GAIA2013 (International Conference on General Algebra and Its Applications) and USMaC2016 (International Conference on General Structures in Mathematics and Computing), and has hosted regular academic seminars since 2000.

In terms of academic administration, Professor Jackson served as Deputy Director of the Mathematics and Computing Research Program (2014–2017) and subsequently as Director of Research and Industry Engagement (2019–2021). Since 2022, he has served as Associate Dean for Research and Industry Engagement in the School of Computing, Engineering, and Mathematical Sciences; he has also consistently served as the School’s Director of Graduate Research.

All faculty and students are welcome!  

School of Mathematical Sciences  

September 9, 2026