William Charles Waterhouse (December 31, 1941 – June 26, 2016) was an American mathematician. He was a professor emeritus of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University,[1] after having taught there for over 35 years.[2] The early part of his career was at Cornell University.[2] His research interests included abstract algebra, number theory, group schemes, and the history of mathematics.[3]

Early life and education

Waterhouse was born in Galveston, Texas, on December 31, 1941, the son of William T. Waterhouse and Grace D. Waterhouse,[4] but grew up in Denver, Colorado.[5] His father was an engineer who was employed with the United States Bureau of Reclamation.[6]

Er besuchte die East High School in Denver. [ 7 ] Bei einem Mathematikwettbewerb für Schüler aus den Bundesstaaten Colorado, South Dakota und Wyoming erzielte er die höchste Punktzahl in der Geschichte des Wettbewerbs und trug maßgeblich zum ersten Platz seiner Schule bei. [ 7 ] In seinem Abschlussjahr legte er den Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) ab und erreichte im verbalen Teil nahezu die Höchstpunktzahl von 797 und im mathematischen Teil die volle Punktzahl von 800. [ 6 ] Anschließend erzielte er in drei verschiedenen Leistungstests des College Board – in Englisch , Chemie und höherer Mathematik – jeweils die Höchstpunktzahl von 800. [ 6 ] Diese Leistung wurde von der Associated Press berichtet und in zahlreichen Zeitungen landesweit veröffentlicht. [ 8 ] Auch das Time Magazine veröffentlichte ein Porträt über ihn. [ 6 ] Waterhouse erhielt das National Merit Scholarship und das General Motors Scholarship. [ 6 ] Er schloss die East High School 1959 ab. [ 7 ]

Waterhouse besuchte das Harvard College . Dort glänzte er im Putnam-Wettbewerb : Als Student im zweiten Studienjahr 1960 gehörte er zwar nicht zum dreiköpfigen Harvard-Team, das den zweiten Platz belegte, erreichte aber dennoch eine Top-Ten-Platzierung in der Einzelwertung. [ 9 ] Als Student im dritten Studienjahr 1961 erzielte er die höchste Einzelwertung – eine Top-5-Platzierung – und trug gleichzeitig zum vierten Platz seines Harvard-Teams in der Gesamtwertung bei. [ 10 ] Und als Student im vierten Studienjahr 1962 war er erneut Putnam Fellow, erreichte eine Top-5-Platzierung und verhalf seinem Harvard-Team zum dritten Platz in der Gesamtwertung. [ 11 ]

Nach seinem Bachelor-Abschluss am Harvard College mit Auszeichnung (summa cum laude) und der Aufnahme in die Phi Beta Kappa setzte Waterhouse sein Studium an der Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences fort , wo er einen Master-Abschluss erwarb. [ 12 ] Während seiner Zeit an der Graduiertenschule erhielt er ein Stipendium der National Science Foundation . [ 12 ] 1968 promovierte er an der Harvard University mit einer Arbeit über abelsche Varietäten über endlichen Körpern unter der Betreuung von John Tate . [ 13 ]

Karriere

Student's notebook pages from a 1973 calculus class at Cornell showing Waterhouse illustrating the applicability of Fourier series to music theory by singing notes and commenting on their harmonics

Waterhouse began teaching at Cornell University in 1968.[4]

He had a career-long interest in the history of mathematics,[3] and while at Cornell wrote a history of the early years of that university's Oliver Club, a discussion forum begun by pioneering Cornell mathematician James Edward Oliver in the 1890s.[14]

Waterhouse remained an assistant professor at Cornell until 1975, at which point he was appointed an associate professor at Penn State.[12] At Penn State, he subsequently became a full professor.[5]

In 1980 he married Betty Ann Senk, a doctoral student and teacher in comparative literature at Penn State.[15] They lived in State College, Pennsylvania.[15]

According to his obituary published in the Centre Daily Times, during his career Waterhouse published over 250 articles in scholarly journals and other publications.[4] He was the author of the 1979 textbook Introduction to Affine Group Schemes for Springer-Verlag.[16]Telegraphic Reviews characterized the work as a "fairly intuitive and accessible" development of the topic, suitable for second-year graduate students.[17] In a 1986 volume for Springer-Verlag, he edited the 1966 translation by Arthur A. Clarke of Gauss's Disquisitiones Arithmeticae.[18] Waterhouse and his wife collaborated on several translations of works by German mathematicians.[19] He was a member of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society.[12]

Waterhouse long had an interest in classical studies;[4] as such, he was a member of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.[20] He published a number of entries about language- and classics-focused matters in the journal Notes and Queries,[21] as well as, in the journal Classical World, an exegesis of an unusual word form found in Ovid's Amores.[22] Waterhouse also had an interest in investigating quotations, whether via a Usenet newsgroup or publishing with The Skeptics Society.[23]

By 2012, Waterhouse had moved to emeritus status.[1]

Waterhouse died on June 26, 2016, in State College, Pennsylvania.[4]

Awards and honors

Waterhouse twice won the Lester R. Ford Award of the Mathematical Association of America, given to authors of articles of expository excellence. The first was in 1984 for his paper "Do Symmetric Problems Have Symmetric Solutions?"[13] and the second was in 1995 for his paper "A Counterexample for Germain".[24] The latter has been characterized as "a historical and mathematical detective story" that investigated an aspect of the correspondence between Carl Friedrich Gauss and Sophie Germain, a French mathematician who used a pseudonym to disguise the fact that she was a woman.[25] According to his obituary, Waterhouse had a special pride in having won the two Lester R. Ford Awards.[4]

References

  1. ^ ab"Mathematics Department: Emeriti". Pennsylvania State University. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  2. ^ ab"News from the AMS: William C. 'Bill' Waterhouse (1941–2016)". American Mathematical Society. September 6, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  3. ^ abPSU Mathematics Department – Faculty, retrieved 2010-02-06.
  4. ^ abcdef"William C. Waterhouse Obituary". Centre Daily Times. June 29, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2022.. Also available at this CAMWS page.
  5. ^ abWaterhouse, William C. (1989). "Two Elementary Proofs of an Inequality (and 1½ Better Ones)". The College Mathematics Journal. 20 (3): 201–205. doi:10.1080/07468342.1989.11973231.
  6. ^ abcde"Education: The Good Student". Time. April 27, 1959.
  7. ^ abc"uncertain". The Denver Post. March 25, 1959.
  8. ^See for example "Flawless Performance". The Tampa Times. Associated Press. June 13, 1959. p. 2-C – via Newspapers.com. Newspapers.com shows over fifty papers running the AP report.
  9. ^Bush, L. E. (1961). "The 1960 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition". The American Mathematical Monthly. 68 (7): 629–637. doi:10.2307/2311508. JSTOR 2311508.
  10. ^Bush, L. E. (1962). "The 1961 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition". The American Mathematical Monthly. 69 (8): 759–767. doi:10.2307/2310772. JSTOR 2310772.
  11. ^"Three Math Students Win Third in Contest". The Harvard Crimson. March 16, 1963.
  12. ^ abcd"2 Named in Mathematics". Centre Daily Times. State College, Pennsylvania. September 10, 1975. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ ab"MAA Writing Awards: Do Symmetric Problems Have Symmetric Solutions?". Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  14. ^"About the Oliver Club". Department of Mathematics, Cornell University. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  15. ^ a b „Senk–Waterhouse Marriage“ . Centre Daily Times . State College, Pennsylvania. 17. Oktober 1980. S. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Graduate Texts in Mathematics 66, Springer-Verlag, 1979, ISBN 978-0-387-90421-4Die
  17. ^ „Telegraphic Reviews“ . The American Mathematical Monthly . 87 (3): 233–238 . 1980. JSTOR 2321635 . 
  18. ^ Nachdruck 1986 bei Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-96254-2Die
  19. ^ Wynn, James; Reyes, G. Mitchell (2021). „Von der Division zur Multiplikation: Die Beziehung zwischen Mathematik und Rhetorik durch transdisziplinäre Forschung“ . In: Wynn, James; Reyes, G. Mitchell (Hrsg.). Argumentieren mit Zahlen: Die Schnittstellen von Rhetorik und Mathematik . Pennsylvania State University Press. S. 23. ISBN 978-0-271-08921-8DieSiehe auch Poonen, Björn (2017). Rationale Punkte auf Varietäten . Providence, Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society. S. 317. ISBN 978-1-4704-3773-2Die
  20. ^ „CAMWS Necrology“. Programm: 115. Jahrestagung der CAMWS (PDF) . Lincoln, Nebraska: Classical Association of the Middle West and South. 2019. S. 69.
  21. ^ Siehe Suchergebnisse im Archiv „Notes and Queries“ , abgerufen am 10. März 2023.
  22. ^ Waterhouse, William C. (2008). " Emodulanda in Ovid's Amores 1.1" . Classical World . 101 (4): 533–534 . doi : 10.1353/clw.0.0027 – via Project Muse.
  23. ^ Waterhouse, William C. (5. Januar 2006). „Hat Einstein die Kirche gelobt?“ eSkeptic . Die Skeptiker-Gesellschaft . Abgerufen am 15. März 2023 .
  24. ^ „MAA Writing Awards: Ein Gegenbeispiel für Germain“ . Mathematical Association of America . Abgerufen am 7. Februar 2010 .
  25. ^ „Penn State Kurzmeldungen: Mathematikprofessor gewinnt Auszeichnung“ . Centre Daily Times . 21. August 1995. S. 3 – via Newspapers.com.