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Research Interests

My past research interests have included the following: hydrodynamics of superfluids; astrophysical fluid dynamics, including solar magnetic fields and solar rotation; tsunami propagation; wind-driven lake circulations; microcirculatory blood flow; oxygen transport to tissue; diffusion in membranes; transport of ADP and ATP in skeletal muscle. I have recently taken up research on mathematical models of infectious diseases. For more detailed information including publications, see my listing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering web pages.

 

Teaching Interests

My primary teaching interests are in applied mathematics. In recent years I have taught courses in diffusion (ME 405), dynamical systems (ME 406), Fourier series and boundary value problems (ME 201), complex variables (ME 202), numerical analysis (ME 211), advanced topics in ordinary differential equations (ME 401), partial differential equations (ME 402), and elementary ordinary differential equations (ME 163). Links to web pages for some of these courses are given below. Most of my recent courses have contained considerable computer work, using the software Mathematica, with the primary goal being the dynamical visualization of mathematical processes (click here to see an example: a movie showing the partial sums of the Fourier series of a square wave, with the Gibbs phenomenon showing up clearly). For the dynamical systems course, I have written a software package called DynPac, which runs under Mathematica. It is a comprehensive package for solving systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, and for visualizing their solutions.

 

Links to Courses Recently Taught

ME 163 - Applied Ordinary Differential Equations

ME 201 / MTH 281 - Applied Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems

ME 406 - Dynamical Systems

 

Biographical Sketch

I was born in Tennessee in 1936. I lived subsequently in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and, for most of my pre-college years, in Bartlesville Oklahoma, where I graduated from high school in 1954. A lifelong addiction to computers began with a summer job with Phillips Petroleum in 1956, in which I programmed for a Datatron in machine language on punched paper tape. I received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Purdue University in 1958. In 1963 I received a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in Applied Mathematics, with a minor in Physics. After a year postdoc at M.I.T., I came to Rochester in 1964, and have been here ever since, except for an academic leave at the University of Colorado in 1971-72. I also have had two academic leaves in the Medical School at Rochester, connected with my work in microcirculation and oxygen transport. I survived five years as Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering from 1972-1977. In the years since, I have concentrated on teaching and research, with somewhat more emphasis on teaching.

 

Other Interests

Hiking, birdwatching, photography, visiting historic sites, playing keyboard, rollercoasters, fountain pens, cats, New York Yankees, quality cookies, and reading about any or all of the following: polar exploration, American colonial history, American utopias, American literature, history of aviation, mountaineering, history of mathematics, and computers.