Software Engineer, E-Systems (now part of Raytheon),
Garland, Texas, 1988-1989.
Awards
Lester R. Ford Award,
Mathematical Association of America, 2007, for the article A
$1 problem, published in The American Mathematical Monthly,
113 (2006), no. 5, 385-402. The citation is available in the
prize book.
Robert Sorgenfrey Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA, 2000.
University Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 1991-1992.
Dodd Teaching Excellence Award, University of Texas at Austin, 1990.
Barker sequences and
flat polynomials (with P. Borwein), Number Theory and
Polynomials (Bristol, U.K., 2006), J. McKee and C. Smyth, eds.,
London Math. Soc. Lecture Note Ser. 352, Cambridge Univ. Press,
2008.
The eccentricities of actors (with J. Harris), Math Horizons,
Feb. 98, 23-25. Reprinted (with a new afterword) in The Edge of
the Universe: Celebrating Ten Years of Math Horizons, MAA Press,
2006.
Thesis
Algorithms for the determination of polynomials with small Mahler
measure, 1995 (160K gzip'd PostScript).
Thesis advisor: Jeffrey D. Vaaler.
Research Presentations
Filled disks (•) indicate invited addresses; open circles (o) stand
for contributed talks.
Titles of all talks (and some abstracts) are available.
Pi Mu Epsilon, University of South Carolina, April 2003.
Super Competition (high school contest), University of North Carolina, Charlotte,
March 2003.
Davidson College, February 2002.
California Polytechnic State University, October 2002.
Mathematics Awareness Month Series, UCLA, April 2002.
California Lutheran University, March 1999.
Washington and Lee University, September 1997.
Inaugural Mathematics Colloquium, High Point University, September 1997.
Western Carolina University, February 1997.
Davidson College, October 1996.
Appalachian State University, March 1995.
Selected Titles
Stop! Are regular octagons optimal?
Kevin Bacon and small world networks.
Ordinary lines and extraordinary proofs.
Fermat's last theorem: As easy as ABC.
How not to send a secret message.
Three proofs of the infinitude of primes.
Abstracts of many of these talks are also available.
Teaching
09-10
Combinatorics, real analysis, object-oriented programming, calculus.
08-09
Probability, number theory, calculus.
07-08
Cryptology, object-oriented programming, data structures, calculus.
06-07
Real analysis, combinatorics, number theory, analysis of algorithms, data
structures, theory of computation (independent study).
05-06
Number theory, combinatorics, data structures, object-oriented programming,
calculus, theory of computation (independent study), cryptology (independent
study).
04-05
Analysis of algorithms, data structures, introductory programming, linear
algebra.
03-04
Number theory, linear algebra, object-oriented programming, introductory
programming, calculus.
02-03
Cryptography, linear algebra, object-oriented programming, data structures
and algorithms.
01-02
Cryptography, internet programming, data structures and algorithms, precalculus.
00-01
Data structures and algorithms (introductory and advanced), introductory
programming.
99-00
Cryptography, internet programming, data structures and algorithms (introductory
and advanced), introductory programming.
98-99
Combinatorics, data structures and algorithms, introductory programming,
freshman math seminar (advisor).
97-98
Combinatorics, problem solving, calculus 1, 2, and 3.
96-97
Real analysis (graduate), number theory, cryptography, linear algebra,
calculus 1 and 2.
95-96
Real analysis (undergraduate), number theory, calculus 1, precalculus.
94-95 (assistant instructor)
Number theory, mathematics for liberal arts honors students, college algebra.
92-94 (math department computer consultant)
Maple, Mathematica, C programming, Unix, aspects of the computer system.
85-86, 89-91 (teaching assistant)
Business and engineering calculus.
Professional Service
External examiner, Ph.D. thesis, Keshav Mukunda, Simon Fraser University,
Pisot and Salem numbers from polynomials of height one, July
2007.
Referee for Mathematics of Computation,
Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society,
American Mathematical Monthly,
Experimental Mathematics,
Journal of Number Theory,
Journal de Théorie des Nombres de Bordeaux,
Journal of Combinatorial Theory (Series A),
Discrete Mathematics,
Illinois Journal of Mathematics,
Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics,
Surveys in Mathematics and its Applications,
Utilitas Mathematica,
Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium,
and other publications.
Reviewer, Mathematical Reviews.
Question writer/editor, Math Jeopardy, MAA-SE 2004-09, MAA MathFest
2006-08.