Peter Winkler

Peter Mann Winkler is a research mathematician, author of more than 125 research papers in mathematics[1] and patent holder in a broad range of applications, ranging from cryptography to marine navigation.[2] His research areas include discrete mathematics, theory of computation and probability theory. He is currently a professor of mathematics and computer science at Dartmouth College.[3]

For the American composer and musicologist, see Peter K. Winkler.

Peter Winkler studied mathematics at Harvard University and later received his PhD in 1975 from Yale University under the supervision of Angus McIntyre.[4] He has also served as an assistant professor at Stanford, full professor and chair at Emory and as a mathematics research director at Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies.[2] He was visiting professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt.[5]

He has published three books on mathematical puzzles: Mathematical Puzzles: A connoisseur's collection (A K Peters, 2004, ISBN 978-1-56881-201-4), Mathematical Mind-Benders (A K Peters, 2007, ISBN 978-1-56881-336-3), and Mathematical Puzzles (A K Peters, 2021, ISBN 978-0-36720-693-2). And he is widely considered to be a pre eminent scholar in this domain. He was the Visiting Distinguished Chair for Public Dissemination of Mathematics at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath), gave topical talks at the Gathering 4 Gardner conferences, and wrote novel papers related to some of these puzzles.

Winkler's book Bridge at the Enigma Club[6] was a runner up for the 2011 Master Point Press Book Of The Year award.[7]

Also in 2011, Winkler received the David P. Robbins Prize of the Mathematical Association of America as coauthor of one of two papers[8] in the American Mathematical Monthly.

Paul Erdős anecdote

According to a story included in Chapter One of "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers / The Story of Paul Erdös and the Search for Mathematical Truth",[9] Paul Erdős attended the bar mitzvah celebration for Peter Winkler's twins, and Winkler's mother-in-law tried to throw Erdős out. [Quote:]

"Erdös came to my twins' bar mitzvah, notebook in hand," said Peter Winkler, a colleague of Graham's at AT&T. "He also brought gifts for my children--he loved kids--and behaved himself very well. But my mother-in-law tried to throw him out. She thought he was some guy who wandered in off the street, in a rumpled suit, carrying a pad under his arm. It is entirely possible that he proved a theorem or two during the ceremony."[9]

References
  1. Publication list from Winkler's home page at Dartmouth.
  2. Information listed on Peter Winkler's homepage at Dartmouth.
  3. Dartmouth mathematics faculty listing.
  4. Peter Winkler at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
  5. "Humboldt network profile of Peter Winkler". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  6. The Bridge World Bookstore Bridge at the Enigma Club by Peter Winkler
  7. The 2011 Master Point Press Book Of The Year Award 2014 IPBA Handbook, p. 176
  8. "Overhang", American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 116, January 2009 (Online)
    "Maximum Overhang", American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 116, December 2009 (Online)
  9. Hoffman, Paul (15 July 1998). The Man Who Loved Only Numbers / The Story of Paul Erdös and the Search for Mathematical Truth. "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" was published in hardcover by: Hyperion Books and a later edition was published by The New York Times Book Company. ISBN 0-7868-6362-5. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.