Northeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America
Fall 2004 Meeting - WPI
Biographies of Invited Speakers
P. K. Aravind
P.K.Aravind received his B.Sc and M.Sc degrees from Delhi University in
Delhi, India. He received his Ph.D degree in theoretical physics from
Northwestern University and then held research positions at the University
of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He joined WPI in 1984 and is currently a professor in the Department of
Physics. His research over the years has spanned the areas of condensed
matter physics, surface physics, quantum optics, Bell's theorem and the
foundations of quantum mechanics, and quantum information theory. He has
taught for many years in WPI's FRONTIERS program, a summer program designed
to draw more high school students into science, mathematics and engineering.
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin earned his B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Carnegie
Mellon and his PhD in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins. Since
1989, he has taught at Harvey Mudd College, where he is Professor of
Mathematics and past Chair. In 2000, he received the Haimo Award for
Distinguished Teaching by the Mathematical Association of America.
His research interests include game theory and combinatorics, with a
special fondness for Fibonacci numbers. He recently co-authored (with
Jennifer Quinn) "Proofs That Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial
Proof", published by MAA. Professors Benjamin and Quinn are the
co-editors of Math Horizons magazine, published by MAA, read by more
than 20,000 math students in the nation.
Art is also a magician who performs his mixture of math and magic to
audiences all over the world, including the Magic Castle in Hollywood.
He is currently on sabbatical at Brandeis University.
David Bressoud
David Bressoud is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics at Macalester
College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Antigua,
West Indies (1971-73), received his Ph.D. (1977) from Temple University where
he studied with Emil Grosswald.
He taught at Penn State from 1977 to 1994, becoming a full professor in 1986.
He has held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study (1979-80),
University of Wisconsin (1980-81 & 1982),
University of Minnesota (1983 & 1998),
and the University of Strasbourg (1984-85).
He has received the MAA Distinguished Teaching Award and the MAA's
Beckenbach Book Award for Proofs and Confirmations: The
Story of the Alternating Sign Matrix Conjecture.
He has published over fifty research articles in number theory,
combinatorics, and special functions, and his other books include
Factorization and Primality Testing (1989),
Second Year Calculus from Celestial Mechanics to Special Relativity
(1991),
A Radical Approach to Real Analysis (1994),
and, with Stan Wagon, A Course in Computational Number Theory (2000).
He currently serves as Chair of the College Board's AP Calculus Development
Committee, Chair of the MAA's Committee on the Undergraduate Program in
Mathematics, and as Director of Macalester's FIPSE
and NSF-sponsored program "Quantitative Methods for Public Policy."
Ezra Brown
Ezra (Bud) Brown grew up in New Orleans, has degrees from Rice
and LSU, and professes mathematics at Virginia Tech, where he has been
since 1969. The elliptic curve bug first bit him while he was in graduate
school and has never really gone away. Although most of his research has
been in number theory and combinatorics, he once wrote a paper with a
sociologist. He has received the MAA's Allendoerfer Award, the Polya Award
(twice), and the MD-DC-VA Section's teaching award. He enjoys singing in
operas, playing jazz piano, gardening, and talking about his granddaughter
Phoebe Rose. He occasionally bakes biscuits for his students.
Jack Graver
Jack Graver grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned his bachelors degree
from Miami of Ohio; his masters and doctorate from Indiana University.
After two years at Dartmouth College as a John Wesley Research Instructor,
he came to Syracuse where he has been for 35 years.
He has published research papers in design theory, integer and
linear programming and in several different areas in graph theory.
He has authored or coauthored four books: two graduate level texts
and two elementary level books one on rigidity theory and one on group
theory and graph theory for students of architecture. In 1957 he joined
the MAA and, during the 38 years he has been in the Seaway Section, he has
held many offices including section chair and section governor. In 1993
he was awarded a Certificate of Meritorious Service by the MAA. He is also a
long time member of the AMS, SIAM, NCTM and AMTNYS (Assoc. of Math.
Teachers of New York State). Starting in the early 60s, he has taught
a variety of summer workshops for high school teachers; in Indiana,
New York, the Virgin Islands and England. It is an activity that he
continues to find particularly satisfying.
Arthur Heinricher
Arthur C. Heinricher is Director of the Center for Industrial
Mathematics and Statistics at WPI and a member of the Mathematical
Sciences Department. He has advised more than 30 different industrial
mathematics projects
with subjects ranging from probabilistic analysis in insurance decisions
to optimization and estimation problems in finance.
Joseph McKenna
Joe McKenna got his B.Sc. from U.C.D. in Dublin and his Ph.D. from the
University of Michigan with Lamberto Cesari in 1976. Since then, he
has been professor of mathematics at the universities of Wyoming,
Florida and (currently) Connecticut. He was also Professor of Applied
Mathematics at U.C.C. in Cork from 1999-2000.
His mathematical interests are all manner of nonlinear differential
equations, ordinary and partial, especially existence and multiplicity
properties, their numerical solution, and applications to vibrations
in bridges and ships.
Other distinctions include the University of Connecticut Chancellor's
Award for Excellence in Research. He is indentified at
www.isihighlycited.com as one of the highly cited researchers in
the mathematical sciences.
Nonmathematical interests include theater and opera, cooking, history,
and detective novels.
Ileana Streinu
Prof. Streinu's CV