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\(e\): The Master of All

by Brian J. McCartin

Award: Chauvenet Prize

Year of Award: 2010

Publication Information: The Mathematical Intelligencer, 28 (2006), no. 2, 10-21.

Summary: This article is an engaging, expansive exposition of the ubiquity of the number \(e\) in mathematics. Whatever a reader’s background, whether a beginning calculus student or a master versed in all manner of limits, series, transforms, and operators, everyone will find something new about \(e\) herein.

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About the Author: (From Prizes and Awards, Joint Mathematics Meetings 2010) Brian J. McCartin is a product of Central High School in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated with highest distinction in applied mathematics from the University of Rhode Island and summa cum laude in music theory from the Hartt School of Music of the University of Hartford. Also, he holds a doctorate in applied mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. He was senior research mathematician for United Technologies Research Center and chair of Computer Science at RPI/Hartford before joining Kettering University. In 2000, he received Kettering’s Outstanding Researcher Award and received Kettering’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2001 and again in 2006. In 2004, the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America presented him with their Award for Distinguished University Teaching. In 2008, he was a plenary lecturer at the First American Conference on Applied Mathematics held at Harvard University. Also, he serves on the editorial board of the international journal Applied Mathematical Sciences and is a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy. In 2009, he published his first book, Rayleigh–Schrödinger Perturbation Theory: Pseudoinverse Approach (Hikari Ltd.)

Subject classification(s): Single Variable Calculus | Calculus | Famous Numbers | Number Concepts | Numbers and Computation
Publication Date: 
Wednesday, February 1, 2006