David Bressoud
| David Bressoud | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 27, 1950 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
Pennsylvania State University Macalester College |
| Alma mater | Temple University |
| Doctoral advisor | Emil Grosswald |
| Notable awards |
MAA Distinguished Teaching Award Beckenbach Book Prize MAA George Pólya Lecturer |
David Marius Bressoud (born March 27, 1950 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American mathematician who works in number theory, combinatorics, and special functions. As of 2012 he is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics at Macalester College and a former President of the Mathematical Association of America.
Bressoud was born March 27, 1950 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He became interested in mathematics in the seventh grade, where he had a teacher who encouraged him and gave him challenging problems. He attended Albert Wilansky's National Science Foundation summer program at Lehigh University between his junior and senior years in high school, where he also spent most of his time working on problems.
He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1971. When he started at Swarthmore he had not yet decided on a major, but after his first year he decided to get out of college as quickly as possibly and had no interest in graduate school, and the quickest way out was to major in mathematics.
After graduating Bressoud became a Peace Corps volunteer in Antigua from 1971 to 1973, teaching math and science at Clare Hall School. While in Antigua he realized he missed mathematics, and kept working on it as a hobby. After the Peace Corps he went to graduate school at Temple University, and received his PhD in 1977 under Emil Grosswald.
After receiving his PhD, Bressoud taught at Pennsylvania State University from 1977 to 1994, reaching the rank of full professor in 1986. During this period he held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study (1979–1980), the University of Wisconsin (1980–81 and 1982), the University of Minnesota (1983 and 1998), and the University of Strasbourg (1984–85).
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