Events Calendar

NL Seminar- The Mystery of the Tamam Shud Code

Abstract:
One of the leading unsolved mysteries in Australia, is the case of the Somerton Man. This was a very athletically fit man found in a nice suit lying deceased on a beach in Australia in 1948. The mystery is that there was no mark on him and there was nothing to identify him. No one came forward to identify him either. Over 65 years later we still do not know his name or how he died. He had no ID, but his pocket had a piece of paper with the words "Tamam Shud" on it. It was subsequently found that the piece of paper had been torn out of a copy of a poetry book called the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Penciled in the back of the book were letters that appeared to be some sort of code. Is this a clue? This talk will outline the key facts of mystery and show how forensic skills in engineering and computing are being used to attempt to both identify the man and shed light on the mysterious letters.

Bio:
Derek Abbott received a B.Sc. (Hons) in physics from Loughborough University, U.K. in 1982 and completed his Ph.D. in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, in 1995. From 1978 to 1986, he was a research engineer at the GEC Hirst Research Centre, London, U.K. From 1986–1987, he was a VLSI design engineer at Austek Microsystems, Australia. Since 1987, he has been with the University of Adelaide, where he is presently a full Professor with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Prof. Abbott is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP) and a Fellow of the IEEE. He has won a number of awards including a Tall Poppy Award for Science (2004), a Premier’s Award in Science and Technology for outstanding contributions to South Australia (2004), and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (2012). He is on the editorial board of Proceedings of the IEEE. His interests are in complex systems and multidisciplinary applications of physics and engineering.

Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 11th Flr Conf Rm # 1135, Marina Del Rey

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Peter Zamar