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William F. Lucas Fund Presents a Short Course at MathFest

The MathFest Short Course this August in Knoxville was the first short course presented in the honor of William F. Lucas. In January 2006 friends, colleagues and family of Bill Lucas formed the William F. Lucas Fund. The purpose of this fund is to help supplement the cost of putting on the short course given by the MAA at the summer MathFest. Although Bill was unable to attend for health reasons he was represented at the course by one of his brothers and a nephew. The topic of this summer's short course, Environmental Modeling, was a fitting one to honor Bill, as he was a pioneer modeler in many ways.

Bill was trained as a game theorist and had an outstanding career at Cornell University and Claremont Graduate School. His graduate students have made major contributions both as researchers and teachers. Although Bill is perhaps best known for his work in game theory and in particular for his "counterexample" in the paper "A Game with No Solution" published in the Bulletin of the AMS (1968), he had a major impact in the education of mathematics students and faculty. In particular, he was actively involved in MAA editorial positions and served as chairman of CUPM. He also gave numerous minicourses and workshops across the country. Many of these courses dealt with non-standard topics (which have now become standard in many programs mainly due to Bill's influence) such as voting theory, apportionment, fairness and equity and mathematics applied to the social sciences.

Members interested in helping support the continuation of the MathFest Short Course and honoring Bill Lucas may contribute to the William F. Lucas Fund by contacting the MAA.

id: 
4231
News Date: 
Monday, October 2, 2006