About Ron Graham

∙ The Mathemagician
Several mathematical areas were started by Ron's work, such as worst case analysis in scheduling theory, on-line algorithms and amortized analysis in the Graham's scan in Computational Geometry, and of course, his favorite topics on Ramsey Theory, and the recent work on quasi-randomness. Ron's mathematics was highlighted in the nomination article written by Gian-Carlo Rota for the first contested election of AMS President. (He won ). He received the Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement in 2003.

∙ Chief Scientist at California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology, Cal-IT2, of UC San Diego.
Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor at Department of Computer Science and Engineering of UCSD.

∙ Internet Visionary
"Here is a picture that Ron and Tom talked about putting routers all over the globe---way before Akamai was built." said David Johnson at Ron's party.

∙ Ex President of the International Jugglers Association
Ron was involved in creating Mill's mess and numerous new juggling tricks for site swaps (see "Drops and descents" with Joe Buhler and several other math papers). Ron has many juggling students including Steve Mills. There is a 20-minute video of Ron teaching the connection between juggling and mathematics to junior high school students. Also, there is a link to a video on "The secret to juggling".

∙ Ex Chief-Tech-Honcho at AT&T
"When Ron first went to Bell Labs, some friends said that it could be the end of his research. Well, he made this place the center of focus in research. He held a series of titles, some were first or one of a kind, 'Adjunct Director', 'Assistant Vice President', to 'Chief Scientist' 'Emeritus Chief Scientist'. He had a ball at the labs. Indeed, there was a great party when he finally left there in 1999."

∙ Guinness Book of World Records
"The highest number ever used in a mathematical proof is a bounding value published in 1977 and known as Graham's number."

∙ The monster proof
"This is perhaps the most complicated set of recurrences that will ever be solved", said D. E. Knuth.

∙ Bouncing Bears and the bungee trampoline
In college days, Ron was part of a circus act, called the Bouncing Bears. He was on stage with Cirque du Soleil and in an issue of Discover magazine about the Science of the Circus. He was a qualified judge for international trampoline competitions and has a unique bungee trampoline for daily exercise.

∙ Speaking Chinese
With perfect tones, Ron gave an eloquent speech in Chinese to President Jiang of PRC.

∙ Ripley's believe it or not

∙ Many picturesque quotes illustrated in fascinating cartoons by John de Pillis.

∙ Ron and Erdös, and their many stories and more.

∙ Various articles, "Renaissance Man" (Star Ledger), 20 Ideas in Research, ( Discover), Wired.

∙ Publication list (recently completed thanks to Steve), patents, profiles.

∙ More information: vita (outdated), ancestry, news, old photos.

This page (still under construction) is being prepared by the obvious suspect for the fun and love that they have been sharing in life and in mathematics.

home/syllabusannouncementshomeworkextra creditpractice midtermpractice final

home & syllabus

The Final Exam will be given on Thursday, Dec. 11, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. in the usual room WLH 2205. It will be a CLOSED BOOK exam. However, you can bring two 8 1/2 by 11 sheets with hand-written notes (on both sides) if you want. You can also use calculators if you would like, but they won't really be necessary.

∙ Time & Place

o M / W 5:00 - 6:15; WLH 2205 (lecture)

o M 2:00 - 2:50; CENTR 214 (discussion section)

∙ Instructor

o Professor Ron Graham (graham@ucsd.edu)

o office hours: W 3:00-4:00; CSE bldg (EBU3B) 2138

∙ Teaching Assistant

o Ling Zhang (lizhang@cs.ucsd.edu)

o office hours: M/Tu 3:00-4:00; CSE bldg (EBU3B) B240A

∙ Course Objectives

o This course introduces mathematical tools for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of algorithms and computer systems. It also explores the mathematical theory of discrete structures useful in modeling computational processes and hence in designing the same. Topics to be covered include basic enumeration and counting techniques; recurrence relations; graph theory; asymptotic notation; elementary applied discrete probability. Other related topics will be presented as time permits.

∙ Course Description

o This course will provide an introduction to the discrete mathematical tools needed to analyze algorithms and systems. Enumerative combinatorics: basic counting principles, inclusion-exclusion, discrete probability, decision trees, functions, asymptotics.

∙ Textbook

o Required:  Susan Epp, Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 3rd ed.

o Recommended: Probability, 2nd ed. in Schaum's Outlines series.

∙ Grading

o There will be a midterm and a final for the course. The midterm will count for 30% of the total grade and the final will count for 70%. Homework problems will be assigned each Monday, but will not be collected or graded. Solutions to the homework problems will be posted a week after the problems are assigned. It should be pointed out that since most of the test questions will be strongly based on these homework problems, it is definitely in your best interest to have a complete understanding of how to solve such problems.

o In addition, from time to time I will assign extra credit problems. These problems will be more challenging than the usual homework problems, and offer you a chance to really impress the instructor! 

∙ Approximate Schedule     

∙

Ronald Graham
Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor

Address :

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
UCSD
La Jolla, CA 92093-0404
graham@ucsd.edu
Office: CSE 2138
858-534-2086(office)
858-822-2240(fax)

CSE21 Fall, 2008.

Some personal info can be found in Fan's page.

Ronald Graham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other persons of the same name, see Ron Graham.

Ronald Graham

Ronald Lewis Graham (born October 31, 1935) is a mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years"[1]. He has done important work in scheduling theory, computational geometry, Ramsey theory, and quasi-randomness.

He is currently the Chief Scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology (also known as Cal-(IT)2) and the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

He was born in Taft, California. In 1962, he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

His 1977 paper considered a problem in Ramsey theory, and gave a "large number" as an upper bound for its solution. This number has since become well known as the largest number ever used in a mathematical proof (is listed as such in the Guinness Book of Records), and is now known as Graham's number.

Graham popularized the concept of the Erdős number, named after the highly prolific Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős (1913 - 1996). A scientist's Erdős number is the minimum number of coauthored publications away from a publication with Erdős. Graham's Erdős number is 1. He co-authored almost 30 papers with Erdős, and was also a good friend. Erdős often stayed with Graham, and allowed him to look after his mathematical papers and even his income.

Between 1993 and 1994 Graham served as the president of the American Mathematical Society. Graham was also featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not for being not only "one of the world's foremost mathematicians", but also "a highly skilled trampolinist and juggler", and past president of the International Jugglers' Association.

In 2003, Graham won the American Mathematical Society's annual Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement. The prize was awarded on January 16 that year, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1999 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. Graham, prolific mathematician and industrious human being, has won many other prizes over the years; he was one of the laureates of the prestigious Pólya Prize the first year it was ever awarded, and among the first to win the Euler Medal. The Mathematical Association of America has also awarded him both the Lester R. Ford prize which was "...established in 1964 to recognize authors of articles of expository excellence published in The American Mathematical Monthly..."[2], and the Carl Allendoerfer prize which was established in 1976 for the same reasons, however for a different magazine, the Mathematics Magazine[3].

Ronald Graham, his wife Fan Chung, and Paul Erdős, Japan 1986

He has published about 320 papers and five books, including Concrete Mathematics with Donald Knuth.[4]

He is married to Fan Chung Graham (known professionally as Fan Chung), who is the Akamai Professor in Internet Mathematics at the University of California, San Diego. He has four children—three daughters, Ché, Laura, Christy and a son, Marc—from an earlier marriage.

[edit] References

1. ^ AMS document about the 2003 Steele Prizes (PDF format)

2. ^ MAA's Lester R. Ford Award Page

3. ^ MAA's Carl B. Allendoerfer Award Page

4. ^ Papers of Ron Graham

[edit] External links

∙ Graham's UCSD Faculty Research Profile

∙ Papers of Ron Graham - a comprehensive archive of the papers written by Ron Graham

∙ About Ron Graham - a page summarizing some aspects of Graham's life and mathematics - part of Fan Chung's website

∙ "Math expert coolly juggles scientific puzzles and six or seven balls" - a SignOnSanDiego.com article on Graham, by Bruce V. Bigelow, dated March 18, 2003

∙ AMS news release telling of Graham's winning of the 2003 Steele Prize

∙ Ronald Graham at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Graham"

Categories: 1935 births | Members of the National Academy of Sciences | Living people | 20th-century mathematicians | American mathematicians | Combinatorists | Scientists at Bell Labs | Graph theorists | Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery

Oren Patashnik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Oren Patashnik

Oren Patashnik (born 1954) is a computer scientist. He is notable for co-creating BibTeX, and co-writing Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science. He is a researcher at the Center for Communications Research, La Jolla.

[edit] History

Oren Patashnik graduated from Yale University in 1976, and later became a student of the famous Donald Knuth at Stanford University.

While working at Bell Labs in 1980, he used 1500 hours of computer time to prove that Qubic [1] can always be won by the first player.

In 1985, he co-created BibTeX (a widely used bibliographical format and tool for LaTeX) with Leslie Lamport.

In 1988, he assisted Ronald Graham and Donald Knuth in writing [2] the perennial 1989 college textbook Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science.

In 1990, he got his doctorate in computer science. His thesis paper was about "Optimal Circuit Segmentation for Pseudo-Exhaustive Testing" [3].

He lives in San Diego with his wife, Amy, and dog, Gabe, and has three children, Joshua, Ariel, and Jeremy.

Oren is a master of puns, particularly those that exploit the pesky dualism between "discrete" and "discreet." He has also been known to enjoy a leg of lamb.