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June 29, 2006
Contact: Gordon Ovenshine: 724-738-4854;
gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu
SRU MATH
PROFESSOR HONORED AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Dr. Robert Vallin, professor of
mathematics at Slippery Rock University, received the Andy Award at
the 30th Summer Symposium in Real Analysis. Real
analysis, a branch of advanced calculus, is Vallin’s research
specialty. He has written 15 papers on the subject.
The Andy Award,
named after retired mathematician Andrew Bruckner of the University
of California/Santa Barbara, honors a mathematician making a
contribution to the field of real analysis. The conference, which
SRU hosted in 2004, attracted more than 40 mathematicians from
across the U.S., and as far away as Poland, Italy and
Russia.
Conference Director Mark McClure selected
Vallin, who teaches analysis classes at SRU, for the Andy
Award. The University of North Carolina/Asheville hosted the
symposium this year.
“I
am very excited to receive the Andy. It shows an appreciation for
all my hard work," said Vallin, who received his doctorate in
classical real analysis from North Carolina State University and is
known in math circles for work with porous sets and with metric
preserving functions, although his current interests are in
separate vs. joint continuity.
Real analysis explores the machinery behind the
functions and techniques in calculus, Vallin said. Analysts
question why these things work in the way they do. This complete
understanding of the calculus leads to mathematicians being able to
develop methods used to study the human heartbeat, predator-prey
patterns, the spread of disease, and the stock market.
#PN, PR, PgN
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