William Dunham Wins the Trevor Evans Award
William Dunham, Truman Koehler Professor of Mathematics, is a recipient of the Trevor Evans Award, established by the Board of Governors in 1992 and first awarded in 1996, are made to authors of expository articles that are accessible to undergraduates and are published in Math Horizons.Thursday, August 7, 2008 01:59 PM
The Awards are named for Trevor Evans, a distinguished mathematician, teacher, and writer at Emory University.
Dunham was recognized for his contribution, “Euler’s Amicable Numbers” in the November 2007 issue of Math Horizons. In it, he highlights one of Euler’s significant contributions to number theory in an engaging style that gives the reader insights into the history and lays bare the technique. Dunham provides the reader with ample opportunities to create or complete Euler’s method for creating amicable numbers. At the same time his narrative propels the reader to a wonderful result. Amicable numbers naturally lead to the sum of the divisors function, relatively prime numbers, multiplicative functions, and the extraordinary power of simple algebraic techniques.
Dunham holds a B.S. (1969) from the University of Pittsburgh and M.S. (1970) and Ph.D. (1974) from The Ohio State University. He has written four books – Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics (Wiley, 1990), The Mathematical Universe (Wiley, 1994), Euler: The Master of Us All (MAA, 1999), and The Calculus Gallery: Masterpieces from Newton to Lebesgue (Princeton, 2005) – and has edited The Genius of Euler: Reflections on His Life and Work (MAA, 2007) as part of the Euler tercentenary celebration. He previously received MAA’s George Pólya Award (1992), Trevor Evans Award (1997), Lester R. Ford Award (2006), and Beckenbach Book Prize (2008). The Association of American Publishers designated The Mathematical Universe as the Best Mathematics Book of 1994.
