As Vice-President, I represented the American Mathematical Society at the first joint meeting with the Korean Mathematical Society in Seoul in December, 2009. At a luncheon of society presidents, in excitement over the future of math in Asia, began plans for a six-country Asian speaking tour. My log… Continue reading »
As I watched Mihai’s legs disappear over the edge of the open door at 13,500 ft, my instructor turned to me and asked “Are you ready?” My mind was racing, going over the waiver I signed and trying to remember the bit that said I could back out… Continue reading »
Earlier on this blog I wrote “Math departments are full of smart people. But with the demands (and joys) of research and teaching (and of our personal lives), most people in math departments do not talk to each other about math nearly enough. Certainly that is true… Continue reading »
The hot hand is a term used in basketball to describe a player making a series of successful throws at the basket, i.e., getting “hot”. But it seems that we, as humans, are too fast at jumping at the conclusion that someone is “hot” just because we saw… Continue reading »
This Saturday was the annual Green Chicken math contest between Middlebury and Williams. Over 30 students spent several hours doing (and then discussing) math problems in order to determine which school shall have the honor of being the home to a green porcelin chicken. Our team (with… Continue reading »
Our decisions process should reflect our mission as a liberal arts college. (Published in The Williams Record, May 5, 2010) At a time of important decisions, Williams must remember its mission and purpose. I see Williams College as a joint student-faculty/staff enterprise dedicated to the proposition that understanding… Continue reading »
One of the greatest toys ever invented, the Rubik’s Cube celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2010. With more than 300 million cubes sold worldwide, it is still one of the most popular puzzles in the world. The Hungarian professor and architect Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the cube,… Continue reading »
Continuing our strong performance in last year’s Putnam Competition, the Williams team (comprised from Nick Arnosti, Carlos Dominguez, Jake Levinson and Wei Sun) placed 17th in North America, with all four scoring in the top 500 of over 3000 students. Click here for the problems and… Continue reading »
I have been spending my sabbatical this year at MSRI and the University of California, Berkeley. I cannot complain about the great interaction with faculty from all over the world, and the wonderful “sunny and 65” days in the Bay area. So why did I spend… Continue reading »
Transferrific Day was January 22, 2010 for the Williams Math/Stat department. For a number of years we have taken a day (or an afternoon) in January to learn together some area of math. This year we used as a springboard David Ruelle’s Dynamical Zeta Functions and Transfer Operators (… Continue reading »