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Carl Claudius Cowen, 2005-2006 MAA President

Born: Indiana

Carl Claudius Cowen is a professor of mathematical sciences and Director of the Actuarial Science Program at Indiana University – Purdue University at Indianapolis. He specializes in operator theory and mathematical biology and has a strong interest in mathematics education.

Presidency: 2005-2006

Cowen spoke at the Northeastern Section of the MAA meeting on "Connections Between Mathematics and Biology" (pdf) in November 2005 and on a panel on "Getting Started in Mathematical Biology" at the 2006 annual national MAA meeting. The Mathematical and Computational Biology Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America (BIO SIGMAA) was formed in August 2006. Cowen served as Past President of this SIGMAA 2006 - 2008.

The MAA started Convergence, an online magazine about the history of mathematics and its use in teaching.

Education and Career

1967 Indiana University, A.B.
1971 Indiana University, M.A.
1976 University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D.

Cowen taught at Purdue University from 1978 to 2004, with a sabbatical year at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University (2002-03). At Purdue, he directed the actuarial science program (1992-97) and headed the mathematics department (1997-2002).

Since 2004, he has taught at Indiana University – Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). He was dean of the School of Science from 2004 to 2006. Cowen's research interests include operators on Hilbert Space, analytic functions, matrix analysis, mathematical biology.

Cowen has been involved with the MAA as governor of the Indiana Section and on committees and councils. He was first vice president of the MAA in 2002-03, when Ronald Graham was president and Joseph Gallian was second vice president.

Cowen was awarded the MAA's Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics in 1997 and the MAA's Certificate for Meritorious Service in 2009.

External Resources

Faculty website at IUPUI, including vita

Certificate for Meritorious Service citation

On the Centrality of Linear Algebra in the Curriculum, remarks on receiving the Haimo Award

"The Teaching – Technology Linkage in Mathematics" (pdf), Cowen's "Retiring Presidential Address" given at 2008 Joint Math Meetings

The Mathematics Genealogy Project