About Me
Academic
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." Albert Einstein
I am the author/coauthor of more than 100 publications, and counting, in Mathematics and recently
in Theoretical Physics. These total approximately 1000 published pages. My coauthors include Paul Erdos, Bela Bollobas, and many other eminent mathematicians. Probabilistic Combinatorics is my primary interest though I have published in a number of areas of Mathematics, and of Theoretical Physics.
"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems." Paul Erdos
I have been a faculty member in the Mathematics Departments of Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge), California State University (Long Beach), University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), and Southern Illinois University (Carbondale).
"The whole thing that makes a mathematician's life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues." Donald Knuth
Download my recent CV for further information.
"I was interviewed on the Israeli radio for five minutes and I said that more than 2000 years ago, Euclid proved that there are infinitely many primes. Immediately the host interrupted me and asked, 'Are there still infinitely many primes?' " Noga Alon
A little note. I earned TA teaching commendations in the Mathematics Department at University of Colorado (Boulder) for 1974-1975. It was a pleasure to teach bright, capable, motivated, Mathematics students. Consequently the department hired me as an Instructor for 1975-1976. This involved teaching more classes but with a substantially higher salary and with a tuition waiver. I was also the assistant for Stanislaw Ulam that year. I first met Paul Erdos in Fall 1975 while he was visiting Ulam. I'm sure he didn't even notice me. Later he would become a coauthor.
"The infinite we shall do right away. The finite may take a little longer." Stanislaw Ulam
Mathematics is my main pursuit. I have broad interests and accomplishments however. Some current information is given below. See Images Section also.
Scientific
Astronomy (visual, imaging, spectrometry).
My current equipment includes the following.
Mounts: Losmandy GM8 with Gemini 1.4, Ioptron CEM25EC
Telescopes: Williams Optic 102, Williams Optic 81GT 5 Element, Meade 8" Schmidt-CassegrainOTA
Cameras: ATIK 314+Mono, ATIK 420Color, SBIG ST-7EColor
Spectrometers: Alpy 600, SBIG DSS 7, RSpec 100.
Radio Astronomy (Recently).
My current equipment includes the following.
RadioAstroLab: RAL10, RAL10LNB, RAL10FEED, RAL164
Radio Astronomy Supplies: 1420 MHz Hydrogen Line Spectrometer, LNA, Calibration Noise Source, L-Band Feedhorn, Ewen Purcell Horn
HPR (Level 2 currently).
Recent Books, Courses, DVDs, etc.
The Great Courses (Including the following -- All are really Excellent at the least):
Radio Astronomy (Jay Lockwood)
Particle Physics for Non-Physicists (Steven Pollock)
The Theory of Everything (Don Lincoln)
Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe (Sean Carroll)
The Higgs Boson and Beyond (Sean Carroll)
How to Play Chess: Lessons from an International Master (Jeremy Silman)
Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World (Benjamin Schumacher)
Medieval World (Dorsey Armstrong)
Great Minds of the Medieval World (Dorsey Armstrong)
Books: Recently Worked through elementary/lovely
A Students Guide to Maxwell's Equations (Daniel Fleisch, Cambridge University Press, 2015, All)
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (David Griffiths, Prentice Hall, 2005, Part)
Courses: Recently completed CIE Master Course in Computer Repair. This is a tech-school-level course, but very useful for being your own IT guy.
Other
Racking 430 lbs at 181 lbs bdwt
Lockout Easy Opener 400 lbs at 181 lbs bdwt
Motorsports Enthusiast.
I own: 2003 BMW 325xi, 2005 Mercedes Benz ML 350 (Daily Driver), 2009 Road Trek 170 Popular. I have owned: 1992 GMC Sonoma GT (Purchased New, only 806 were built, stored/sold in 2000 with 700 miles on it, sticker in window, like Syclone),
1985 Kawasaki 900 (Purchased New), 1991 Kawasaki ZX10 (Purchased New), 1968 Porsche 911 and many more. Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI) summers for the AMA/FIM MotoAmerica (Motorcycle), the Kohler Grand Prix (IndyCar), and the Brian Redman Challenge (VintageCar) races. Road America is a lovely 4.048 mile/14 turn natural track running through the hills of eastern Wisconsin. Speeds reach in excess of 200 mph on the long front-stretch. Little compares with watching forty-five identical motorcycles race three wide at 130 mph into the ninety degree first turn at the start of the 600 SuperSport Race. Thrilling and amazing.
Exercise.
From age 12 I have been a fitness fan -- gymnastics (as an adult also), weightlifting, running, walking. Currently I have walked 1100 consecutive days from 1 July 2015 to present (15 July 2018) totaling 5900 miles (Garmin GPS 60 tracks to the second/.01 mile) much on trails. I ran regularly for many years.
Weightlifting.
I hold/held Bench Press records in several states/several organizations. I have been ranked in the Annual Powerlifting USA: Bench Press Top 100 Overall and Powerlifting USA: Bench Press Top 20 Masters for many years in the 181 lb class. I am very proud of these accomplishments. They are the
result of many years of hard work being lifetime drug-free, of course. My best Bench Press is (recently actually) 430 lbs at 181 lbs lifetime drug-free.
Charity
I have given approximately (USD) $100,000 to various charities in the past 10 years (2008-2018). And continuing. I live quite modestly so I am able to do this.
I bought my youngest brother's house for him: A high-school educated, self-employed, small-time, laborer. He bought his house (1988) on a land contract; got local bank loan (term); bank would not renew (poor payment history). He couldn't get a local loan: bad credit (500) and low-income. Got loan from Litton Loan (sanctioned/fined later for predatory loan practices). Made high-interest, high-dollar, on-time, payments for many years. Litton stopped accepting his loan payments in Summer 2010 ($44,000 owed). They planned on foreclosing; a dirty trick (read their savage reviews). He couldn't get a loan locally and then told me. I got a co-signed local loan January 2011 (3 year) and made all the payments $561.39 X 36 month = $20,210.04. I co-signed renewal loan January 2014 (3 year) and made all the payments $556.12 X 36 = $20,020.32. This bank would not give him a loan, for the $13,365 balance, without me co-signing! So I paid off the balance due of $13,365 on 30 March 2017. He received the deed in May 2017. I told him: "Try not to lose it." Property taxes of $3,000/year. It cost
me $54,000 to pay off his $44,000 house. He has repaid a total of 3 x $300 = $900.
