Short Bio

I grew up in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Before going to college I worked at
everything from being an assistant trainer at a sea aquarium, a scuba diver, an import
company jack-of-all-trades, a common seaman on a Bahamas cruise ship, and a clarinet
tutor. I completed a bachelors degree and masters degree in mathematics at San Diego
State University. In my masters thesis I proved some old algebraic topology results in
a new way using spectral sequences. I went to UCLA for doctoral work, obtaining a PhD
degree in Applied Mathematics in 1977. My dissertation involved development of a
mathematical model for the electrical activity of a nerve in the worm Myxicola, and
proving the existence of propagating action potentials using topological ideas and
perturbation theory. My first academic appointment was at Texas A&M University, then in
1981 went to the Department of Mathematics at SUNY at Buffalo where I got promoted in
1983 to associate professor, and again at the beginning of 1990 as full professor. I
spent sabbatical time in the 1980s at Oxford University, Heriot-Watt University, and
National Institutes of Health. I was department chair from 1997-2000. I left Buffalo
in 2000 to take the appointment as professor and chair of Mathematics and Statistics
Department at UMBC. I stepped down as Chair in July, 2006, and continued on as
Professor of Mathematics until September, 2014, at which time I retired. I am now Emeritus
Professor, and at present cruising the east coast of the US on my motor yacht AfterMath.

A passion I have had life-long has been messing around with boats. To see the boats that have been in my life, click here.