My Mathematical Biography

I had to write this for a course I'm taking so I thought that I might as well share it with the world.

Currently I’m a first year graduate student in Villanova’s master’s degree mathematics program. A lot of my friends have asked me, “are you crazy? Why are you doing this?” To them I give a short reply, “I like math.” Besides liking math I have to catch up to the rest of my family. My two brothers have Phd degrees (not in math). My wife has two masters degree (certainly not in math). I feel like the dummy in the family holding just an MS degree in computer science (from Villanova, of course).

My interest in math was piqued by raising my two sons. One is now a sophomore at Tufts University. He never needed any help with his homework and went through his school district’s “gifted program.” As a gifted student in mathematics he was compelled to participate in MathCounts competition during middle school. I went to the first competition and saw the team do poorly due to lack of preparation. So I called the teacher in charge the next year and asked if I could assist coaching the team. He said “sure,” and by eighth grade the team placed 5th in Chester county, and one member of the team finished 6th individually.

I learned that having one very bright son does not guarantee two bright sons. My other son is not academically oriented. I tutored him a lot in math and had to review his text books closely in order to explain the concepts the way that I thought they were presented in class. I was amazed at how much new material is taught in geometry compared to what I learned many, many years ago. The same goes for Algebra 1 and 2 although the difference was not so dramatic in these subjects.

So I re-entered the field of mathematics without a definite goal in mind knowing that I received a random mathematics education as an undergraduate. I say random because I don’t have a good foundation in calculus (it’s a long story) and the only undergraduate courses that I really enjoyed were number theory and abstract algebra. I majored in math as an undergraduate because because math was one subject where there as absolutely no BS (I don’t mean Bachelor of Science here). I’m hoping to squeeze by on the required analysis courses having strengthened my calculus by taking the MIT Open Course Ware course in single variable calculus (using a great textbook by George Simmons).

I guess I may teach a few math courses since an early retirement looks feasible for me. I did try teaching computer science in the early eighties but I didn’t like it at the time. I do know that I enjoy being a student again.

Perhaps the real reason that I’m studying math again is to impress a college friend who is a bone-fide mathematician. His name is John P. D’Angelo and he’s a tenured professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. John is a legend in my mind, and I hope to see him again some day. Believe it or not, as an undergraduate his teachers would have him read their research papers to look for errors prior to submitting them for publication. He earned his Phd from Princeton University during the period when there was a phantom in Fine Hall. The phantom was named John Forbes Nash and John spoke with him on many occasions.

So if you know of any good employment opportunities for a “seasoned” worker with a double masters degree, please let me know.