Fall 2001
| New Faculty | |
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Mellon Professor: Thomas Hales After receiving his PhD from Princeton in 1986, Tom Hales took up a post doc at Berkeley, and then positions at Harvard, Chicago and Michigan. Tom's research interests lie in algebra and geometry. In 1998 Tom Hales astonished mathematicians across the World by confirming the 400 year old Kepler Conjecture, and followed that by proving the even more venerable Honeycomb Conjecture. (For more information on the Kepler and Honeycomb Conjectures see Cannonballs and Honeycomb below.) The proof of the Kepler Conjecture relied in part on extensive and intricate computer calculations, and Tom is now looking at ways to take that further, and investigate to what extent computers can be used to prove other difficult theorems. |
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Assistant Professor:
Jason Fulman Jason Fulman's research is in the areas of algebra and combinatorics. His Ph.D. thesis was with Persi Diaconis on random matrix theory over finite fields; Jason received his doctorate in 1997 from Harvard University. He then was a John Wesley Young Postdoctoral Research Instructor at Dartmouth College for 2 years, and an NSF Postdoc at Stanford for 2 years. Now that Jason is an assistant professor at Pitt, he aims to continue his research program and to have a positive influence on students. Currently Jason's main areas of research are card shuffling and random matrix theory. Card shuffling, perhaps surprisingly, is related to many different parts of mathematics-dynamical systems, Markov chain theory, Lie theory, and more. Random matrix theory, which originated out of statistics and physics, is now being intensely studied around the world. |
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Postdoc: Alan Ho Alan Ho received his PhD from Princeton in 2001, after doing his BS here at the University of Pittsburgh (1995). Alan's research interests lie in financial math. But he is also interested in probability and differential equations. Alan likes to relax by playing chess or go, messing around with computers - he is especially interested in the Linux operating system - and unwinds by biking and swimming. |
| Picture Perfect | |
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Cannonballs and Honeycomb Kepler's Conjecture states that the best possible stacking of cannonballs is exactly the pyramids found at Civil War memorials. It remained open for over 400 years, until in August 1998, Mellon Professor Thomas Hales confirmed the conjecture. The proof takes 282 pages, each aspect supported by even longer computer calculations. A related problem, of even greater antiquity, is: What is the most efficient partition of the plane into equal areas? The honeycomb conjecture asserts that the answer is the regular hexagonal honeycomb. After completing the proof of the Kepler conjecture, Thomas Hales turned his attention to the honeycomb conjecture. Somewhat to his surprise he obtained a (relatively) short solution without resort to computers. More (Also in MathML) |
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