Daniel Curtin

Friday evening banquet invited speaker.

The History of the KYMAA in Light of the Larger Social History of American Mathematics.

The History of Mathematics was first studied largely by mathematicians. As a result the emphasis was on the technical details of the results, and to a lesser extent on the lives of the mathematicians studied. In recent decades the subject has expanded to include larger historical issues. A major study is the rise of mathematical organizations and other social structures that support the creation and dissemination of mathematics. Here the MAA has played a major role in the USA. It is founded upon its sections, of which ours was one of the first. We will consider this history of the history of mathematics, and several interesting aspects of the past of the KYMAA.

Daniel Curtin (curtin@nku.edu) earned his A.B. from the University of Notre Dame in 1973, and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979. He was on the faculty of NKU, with occasional sojourns into administration, until his retirement in 2017, with the rank of Professor Emeritus. Trained in algebraic geometry, his studies moved over the years to the history of mathematics, especially the period just before Newton and Leibniz. This allows him to make use of the Latin taught him in high school by the Jesuits. He also has a love of electronics, and is active in amateur radio. He and his wife live in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where they remain active in church and volunteer activities. All four of his children share his love of music. He can often be found in various pubs, his fiddle under his chin, playing Irish traditional music (with perhaps more enthusiasm than skill).