Position
Academic Background
Sample Courses   
Teaching Philosophy
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards
Publication Highlights   
Selected Scholarly Presentations

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• Professor of Mathematics

Academic Background        

• University of Oklahoma - Ph.D. in Mathematics, 1971
• University of Massachusetts - M.A. in Mathematics, 1965
• University of Virginia - B.A. in Mathematics, 1963

• Number Theory
• Combinatorics
• History of Mathematics
• Complex Variables
• Graph Theory
• Descriptive Astronomy

Teaching Philosophy

To instill in students the ability to ask good questions, to recognize patterns, to think logically, to analyze problems, and to learn from experience.  I expect students to be diligent, tenacious and to have some intellectual curiosity. I challenge students in the classroom and attempt to instill in them the ability to be a bulwark against mediocrity after they have graduated from Providence College.

Research & Interests

History of mathematics, number theory, combinatorics, reading, gardening, and travel

Notable Academic Appointments and Awards

• Associate Secretary, Mathematical Association of America, 1998-present
• President, Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, 1998-1999
• Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, Northeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America, 1997
• Visiting Professor, United States Military Academy at West Point, 1995-1996
• Award for Distinguished Service, Northeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America, 1992
• Visiting Scholar, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, Cambridge University (1985) and Wolfson College, Cambridge (1989, 1990, 1994)

Publication Highlights

• Number Theory in Nine Chapters 2ed. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• An interview with Dirk Struik on the eve of his one hundredth birthday. The College Mathematics Journal 33 (2002), 178-187.
• Cartwright and Littlewood on Van der Pol's equation. Contemporary Mathematics 208 (1997), 265-276, with Shawnee L. McMurran.
• "Mr. Littlewood and I": The mathematical collaboration of M.L. Cartwright and J.E. Littlewood. The American Mathematical Monthly 103 (1996), 833-845, with Shawnee L. McMurran.
• How many people ever lived? Vita Mathematica, 331-337, Mathematical Association of America, 1996.
• Hertha Ayrton: A persistent experimenter. Journal of Women's History 7 (1995), 86-112, with Shawnee L. McMurran.
• Nicholas Saunderson: the blind Lucasian professor. Historia Mathematica 19 (1992) 356-370.
• Thomas Jefferson and Douwes's method for determining latitude. Historia Mathematica 14 (1987): 275 281.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• MAA Northern California Section Meetings, Stanford University "Episodes in the Early History of the Lucasian Chair", February 2006
• History and Pedagogy of Mathematics ICME Satellite Meetings, Uppsula, Sweden, "Women and the Educational Times". July 2005
• Tenth International Congress on Mathematical Education, Copenhagen, Denmark, "Using the Educational Times in the Classroom", July 2005
• Third Joint British Society for the History of Mathematics and the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics Meeting, Clare College, Cambridge, "Raymond Clare Archibald: A Euterpian Historian of Mathematics", July 2005.
• Joint American Mathematical Society and Italian Mathematical Union Meting, University of Pisa, "Italian Contributions to the Educational Times (1860-1918)", June 2002
• First Joint Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Société Mathématique de France in Lyon France, "French Contributions to the Educational Times (1860-1918)", July 2001
• Joint Meeting of the BSHM and the CHSPM, Oriel College, Oxford University "Women and the Educational Times", July 1997

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