The MAA was founded in 1915 to serve as a home for The American Mathematical Monthly. The mission of the Association-to advance mathematics, especially at the collegiate level-has, however, always been larger than merely publishing world-class mathematical exposition. MAA members have explored more than just mathematics; we have, as this volume tries to make evident, investigated mathematical connections to pedagogy, history, the arts, technology, literature, every field of intellectual endeavor. Essays, all commissioned for this volume, include exposition by Bob Devaney, Robin Wilson, and Frank Morgan; history from Karen Parshall, Della Dumbaugh, and Bill Dunham; pedagogical discussion from Paul Zorn, Joe Gallian, and Michael Starbird, and cultural commentary from Bonnie Gold, Jon Borwein, and Steve Abbott. This volume contains 35 essays by all-star writers and expositors writing to celebrate an extraordinary century for mathematics-more mathematics has been created and published since 1915 than in all of previous recorded history. We've solved age-old mysteries, created entire new fields of study, and changed our conception of what mathematics is. Many of those stories are told in this volume as the contributors paint a portrait of the broad cultural sweep of mathematics during the MAA's first century. Mathematics is the most thrilling, the most human, area of intellectual inquiry; you will find in this volume compelling proof of that claim.

Part of the A Century of Mathematics in America collection, this book contains articles that describe the mathematics and the mathematical personalities in some of the nations' prominent departments: Johns Hopkins, Clark, Columbia, MIT, Michigan, Texas, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

This book is about mathematics in Sweden between 1630 and 1950 - from S. Klingenstierna to M. Riesz, T. Carleman, and A. Beurling. It tells the story of how continental mathematics came to Sweden, how it was received, and how it inspired new results. The book contains a biography of Gosta Mittag-Leffler, the father of Swedish mathematics, who introduced the Weierstrassian theory of analytic functions and dominated a golden age from 1880 to 1910. Important results are analyzed and re-proved in modern notation, with explanations of their relations to mathematics at the time. The book treats Backlund transformations, Mittag-Leffler's theorem, the Phragmen-Lindelof theorem and Carleman's contributions to the spectral theorem, quantum mechanics, and the asymptotics of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.

In the summer of 1988 in Providence, the AMS celebrated its centennial with a wide range of mathematical activities. Among those was a symposium, Mathematics into the Twenty-first Century, which brought together a number of the top research mathematicians who will likely have a significant impact on the mathematics of this century. This book contains the lectures presented by 16 of the 18 individuals who spoke during the symposium. Written by some of the major international figures in mathematical research, this group of articles covers a panorama of the vital areas of mathematics at the turn of the 21st century and gives the general mathematical reader a broad perspective on some of the major trends in research.

A celebration of the state of mathematics at the end of the millennium. Produced under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the book was born as part of the activities of World Mathematical Year 2000. It consists of 28 articles written by influential mathematicians.

Mathematicians like to point out that mathematics is universal. In spite of this, most people continue to view it as either mundane (balancing a checkbook) or mysterious (cryptography). This fifth volume of the What's Happening series contradicts that view by showing that mathematics is indeed found everywhere-in science, art, history, and our everyday lives. Here is some of what you'll find in this volume: Mathematics and Science Mathematical biology: Mathematics was key tocracking the genetic code. Now, new mathematics is needed to understand the three-dimensional structure of the proteins produced from that code. Celestial mechanics and cosmology: New methods have revealed a multitude of solutions to the three-body problem. And other new work may answer one of cosmology'smost fundamental questions: What is the size and shape of the universe? Mathematics and Everyday Life Traffic jams: New models are helping researchers understand where traffic jams come from-and maybe what to do about them! Small worlds: Researchers have found a short distance from theory to applications in the study of small world networks. Elegance in Mathematics Beyond Fermat's Last Theorem: Number theorists are reaching higher ground after Wiles' astounding 1994 proof: new developments inthe elegant world of elliptic curves and modular functions. The Millennium Prize Problems: The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a million dollars for solutions to seven important and difficult unsolved problems. These are just some of the topics of current interest that are covered in thislatest volume of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences. The book has broad appeal for a wide spectrum of mathematicians and scientists, from high school students through advanced-level graduates and researchers.

Landscape of 21st Century Mathematics offers a detailed cross section of contemporary mathematics. Important results of the 21st century are motivated and formulated, providing an overview of recent progress in the discipline. The theorems presented in this book have been selected among recent achievements whose statements can be fully appreciated without extensive background. Grouped by subject, the selected theorems represent all major areas of mathematics: number theory, combinatorics, analysis, algebra, geometry and topology, probability and statistics, algorithms and complexity, and logic and set theory. The presentation is self-contained with context, background and necessary definitions provided for each theorem, all without sacrificing mathematical rigour. Where feasible, brief indications of the main ideas of a proof are given. Rigorous yet accessible, this book presents an array of breathtaking recent advances in mathematics. It is written for everyone with a background in mathematics, from inquisitive university students to mathematicians curious about recent achievements in areas beyond their own.