Distinguished Lecture Series in Mathematics Honors Professor Gould

Morgantown, W.Va., September 17, 2007:   The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Mathematics are pleased to host a lecture in honor of Henry W. Gould, retired Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at West Virginia University.  The lecture will take place on Thursday, Sept. 20 from 4-5 p.m. in Armstrong Hall Room 315.  

George Andrews, Evan Pugh Professor in the Department of Mathematics at The Pennsylvania State University will present “Gould’s Function and Problems in Partitions,” as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series in Mathematics.  

Considered the world’s leading expert in the theory of integer partitions, Andrews is a mathematician working in analysis and combinatorics who has contributed to over 250 research articles on q-series, special functions, combinatorics and applications.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and author of The Theory of Partitions, which considers the many theoretical aspects of integer partitions for students and researchers.  Additionally, he discovered Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook in 1974, and is currently the voice of the calculus reform movement interested in mathematical pedagogy.   

“The information in the lecture is technical, but the concepts discussed are entirely elementary notions of how the counting numbers may be represented by sums of smaller numbers,” said Dr. Sherm Riemenschneider, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics at WVU.  “What will come out will no doubt be a wealth of interesting observations about numbers.”

Henry Gould, a well know researcher of combinatorics, number theory, and special functions, received his M.A. from the University of Virginia in 1956 before he joined the faculty of WVU in 1958.  He also studied communications theory at the National Radio Institute in Washington, D.C., which led him to work as a broadcast radio announcer and engineer where he worked out proofs while listening to classical music.  

After retiring in spring of 2007 with 49 years of scholarship, Gould remains very active at WVU by hosting and creatively working with the Eiesland Visiting Scholar, Dr. Jocelyn Quaintance.  Over the years Professor Gould has studied combinatorial analysis, number theory, special functions of mathematical physics, and the history of mathematics and astronomy.  He is also a world renowned expert in combinatorial identities, and one of three AAAS Fellows at WVU, of which there are only eight in the state.

Additionally, Gould has published over 180 papers appearing in over 20 countries, is the author of the widely used, major reference book Combinatorial Identities, has received many research awards, and is a member of numerous honorary organizations.  

For more information, please contact Dr. Sherm Riemenschneider at (304) 293-2011 ext. 2322 or Sherm.Riemenschneider@mail.wvu.edu.

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