Background
Thorpe, John Alden was born on February 29, 1936 in Lewiston, Maine, United States. Son of Clyde Francis and Thelma (Littlefield) Thorpe.
(In the past decade there has been a significant change in...)
In the past decade there has been a significant change in the freshman/ sophomore mathematics curriculum as taught at many, if not most, of our colleges. This has been brought about by the introduction of linear algebra into the curriculum at the sophomore level. The advantages of using linear algebra both in the teaching of differential equations and in the teaching of multivariate calculus are by now widely recognized. Several textbooks adopting this point of view are now available and have been widely adopted. Students completing the sophomore year now have a fair preliminary underĀ standing of spaces of many dimensions. It should be apparent that courses on the junior level should draw upon and reinforce the concepts and skills learned during the previous year. Unfortunately, in differential geometry at least, this is usually not the case. Textbooks directed to students at this level generally restrict attention to 2-dimensional surfaces in 3-space rather than to surfaces of arbitrary dimension. Although most of the recent books do use linear algebra, it is only the algebra of ~3. The student's preliminary understanding of higher dimensions is not cultivated.
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academic administrator mathematician
Thorpe, John Alden was born on February 29, 1936 in Lewiston, Maine, United States. Son of Clyde Francis and Thelma (Littlefield) Thorpe.
Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1958; Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1959; Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1963.
C.L.E. Moore instructor Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963-1965. Assistant professor Haverford (Pennsylvania) College, 1965-1968. Associate professor State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1968-1977, professor, 1977-1987, vice provost undergraduate education, dean undergraduate college Buffalo, 1987-1993.
Provost Queens College/CUNY, 1993-1998. Executive director National Council Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, Virginia, since 1998. Member Institute Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1967-1968.
Consultant Mobil Research and Development Corporation, Princeton, 1967-1970. Consultant editor Saunders College Public, Philadelphia, 1981-1986. Program director National Science Foundation, Washington, 1984-1986, deputy division director 1986-1987.
(In the past decade there has been a significant change in...)
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Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Higher Education, American Mathematics Society, Mathematics Association American(Board of Governors 1984-1987, chair science policy committee 1988-1992).
Married Marilyn Alice Austin, June 7, 1959. Children: Kendall Richard, Steven Russell.