Our annual faculty dinner was held on May 1, 2002 in the ninth floor lounge of Van Vleck Hall. Three recent retirees were recognized for their service to the department and the university. They are Jerry Keisler, Dan Shea, and Kay Strangman. Each of them has been awarded emeritus status, and from what we understand, is enjoying the independence that comes with retirement. Bob Turner also retired this past year but was out of the country at the time of the dinner. We hope to have an opportunity to honor Bob at the faculty dinner in May of this year. Also Steve Bauman has just retired (at the end of the fall semester of the 2002-03 academic year) and will also be honored this coming May. Read about Bob and Steve in next year's newsletter.
H. Jerome Keisler received the Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1961, where his advisor was Alfred Tarski. He spent 1961-62 at the Institute for Defense Analysis, and in 1962 came to Madison as an Assistant Professor. While at Wisconsin, he held visiting positions at the University of Colorado, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Institute for Defense Analysis, and the University of California at Los Angeles.
Jerry has been a prolific research mathematician writing over ninety research papers which contributed fundamental knowledge to model theory and related areas. His early papers from the 1960s are still widely cited as the seminal works in their subjects; his paper with Alfred Tarski has formed the basis for the modern theory of large cardinals.
His work from 1970s to the present has made Jerry the world's leading authority on non-standard analysis. Jerry not only developed the theory but he also showed the importance of non-standard analysis to probability theory, mathematical economics, and stochastic differential equations. Jerry is also the author of a number of influential and acclaimed books on mathematics, with his graduate text in model theory and undergraduate text explaining calculus via infinitesimals having been translated into a number of other languages.
There have been numerous recognitions of Jerry's research accomplishments: an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 1966, a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Nice in 1970, the A.M.S. Colloquium Lecture Series in 1974, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976 and, on campus in 1982, the most prestigious professorship the university offers, a William F. Vilas Professorship.
Mary Ellen Rudin and Ken Kunen recalled the central role that Jerry played for so many years within the logic group, teaching graduate courses and supervising doctoral dissertations. Jerry is the record-holder in the department with 34 mathematical children. It is expected that Jerry will hold this record for many years to come.
Daniel F. Shea received the PhD from Syracuse University in 1965 with a thesis in
complex analysis supervised by Albert Edrei. He came to Madison right out of
graduate school and spend his entire distinguished career here. Dan held
visiting positions at a number of places including Purdue University
(1970-71), California Institute of Technology (1974-75), University of Hawaii
(1979), Technical University of Linköping (Sweden) (1981), and
Universität Würzburg (Germany) (1991). Dan had 9 PhD students and over 50
publications on complex analysis, potential theory, and integral equations
Dan gave many invited talks during his career. He was invited and went to
Oberwolfach five times, and he gave invited addresses at the annual meetings
of the Swedish Mathematical Society three times.
In 1996 Dan volunteered to be the department's Undergraduate Advisor, a position he held until his retirement this past year. Dan worked very effectively in this demanding and very important position. His knowledge of the department and the university and his well-known and appreciated affability served him well in this position.
Knowing that Dan is an ardent opera fan and a leading figure in the international Jussi Bjoerling Society, Si Hellerstein, as part of his speech about Dan, was moved to to write a synopsis for an ``opera'' to commemorate the occasion. He gave the title ``Dan Sheaovanni'' to this ``opera.'' This scene captures Dan's joint love of mathematical analysis and opera. Here is the synopsis of one of the scenes:
Scene 2. In a lecture hall in Van Vlezzi sit some 200 instructees. Sheaovanni explains the strategy of integration. He pauses, stares at the blackboard, and begins the aria ``Che bel integrel'' - ``What a beautiful integral.'' As he sings the aria, the instructees respond with the choral chant of ``no comprendo, no capisco'' - several times, rising in volume and drowning out Sheaovanni. A bell rings. The chorus rises and exits still chanting ``no comprendo, no capisco.'' Sheaovanni remains. He gazes fondly at the board and again sings ``Che bel integrel.''
Kay Strangman studied at UW-Madison with majors in mathematics and mathematics education. She received a Masters degree in mathematics from the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1967 Kay returned to Madison to work at the UW-Madison R & D Center collaborating with Henry Van Engen on cognitive learning. According to Kay, it was during the two years she spent with Van Engen where she really learned to teach. Kay was a Lecturer in both the Mathematics and Computer Sciences Departments. From 1989 to 1999 she taught numerical analysis courses in the CS Department. She taught in the Mathematics Department from 1983 to 2002, primarily the three courses of our calculus sequence in the extended day program, but also our courses for future elementary teachers and our course on quantitative reasoning. In 2000, Ms. Strangman was awarded the title of Senior Lecturer. At the dinner, Claire Rider spoke of Kay's reputation as an excellent teacher who used computers and computer software (e.g., Mathematica and Excel) to advantage in the classroom. Kay has several interests outside of mathematics. She is the substitute organist at Bethel Lutheran Church and ice-skating. Currently, she is working on the silver testing level in ice-dancing.