David PesciThis issue we ask 5 Questions of…David Pollack, associate professor of mathematics and computer science. Q: How did you become interested in mathematics in general, and as an academic career specifically? DP: Mathematics was my favorite subject in school as far back as I can remember. At that time I had no idea that one could be a mathematician, so I imagined I would be a scientist or engineer. After my sophomore year in high school I was fortunate enough to attend the summer mathematics program at Hampshire College, where I was first exposed to professional mathematicians. I realized more…
Karen Collins, chair and professor of mathematics, served as a judge in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology that awarded $100,000 to high school students. In a Dec. 7 New York Times article, Collins said, ''We never expected high school students to achieve such success in examining this upper-bound aspect of graph theory."
David LowIn The Calculus of Friendship (Princeton University Press), Cornell University professor Steven Strogatz chronicles the moving story of the friendship he developed with his former high school math teacher, Don Joffray ’50, over 30 years through the exchange of letters between them. For a long time, their friendship revolved almost entirely on a shared love of calculus. Joffray goes from the prime of his career to retirement, competes in whitewater kayaking at the international level, and loses a son. Strogatz matures from high school math whiz to Ivy League professor, has a failed marriage, and experiences the sudden death of…
Anna Haensch, graduate student, mathematics and computer science, is on the steering committee of Fourth Annual Spuyten Duyvil Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, which is being held at SUNY-New Paltz April 25. She also will be making a presentation titled "The Pell Equation" which will discuss the Pell equation (x2-ny2=1) which was studied by the ancient Greeks and is one of the oldest Diophantine equations, and arguably the most important.
Olivia DrakeDuring a session on algebraic topology, graduate student Weiwei Pan spoke to dozens of mathematical scholars from around the world on "Categorified Bundles and Classifying Spaces." Pan was one of 220 speakers who presented math-related talks during the 2008 Eastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society held Oct. 11-12 at Wesleyan. More than 300 participants registered. "One of the best things about being a mathematician is that there are people all over the world who share your interests, and that mathematics (more…)