| Joseph Gallian | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 5, 1942 Pennsylvania |
| Residence | Duluth, Minnesota |
| Institutions | University of Minnesota Duluth |
| Alma mater | Slippery Rock University University of Kansas Notre Dame University |
| Doctoral advisor | Karl Kronstein |
| Known for | Group theory |
| Notable awards | Haimo Award from the Mathematical Association of America (1993) The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Minnesota Professor of the Year (2003) |
Joseph A. Gallian (born January 5, 1942) is an American mathematician. He is a Morse Alumni Distinguished University Professor of Teaching in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Minnesota Duluth.[1] He completed his Ph.D. thesis, entitled 'Two-Step Centralizers in Finite p-Groups', at Notre Dame University in 1971 under the supervision of Karl Kronstein.[2] He has been a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth since 1972.
Gallian has made extensive contributions to the mathematical community in the areas of research, exposition, teaching, mentoring, and service.[1][3] He has authored or edited five books (including Contemporary Abstract Algebra, Houghton Mifflin; For All Practical Purposes, W.H. Freeman (coauthor); Principles and Practices of Mathematics, Springer-Verlag; Proceedings of the Conference on Summer Undergraduate Mathematics Research Programs, Editor, American Mathematical Society; and Proceedings of the Conference on Promoting Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (editor), American Mathematical Society) and over 100 articles. He has won both the Allendoerfer and Evans awards for exposition from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and was the Polya lecturer for the MAA from 1999 to 2001. He earned media attention in 1991 when he determined the methods used by Minnesota and many other states for assigning drivers' license numbers.
His excellence in teaching earned him the Haimo Award for distinguished teaching from the MAA in 1993 and he was the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Minnesota Professor of the Year in 2003.[1] In addition to teaching math classes, he has taught a Humanities course called the "The Lives and Music of the Beatles" for more than 25 years and a liberal arts course on math and sports.
Every summer since 1977 (except for 1978), Gallian has run a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Minnesota Duluth.[4][5] The program has been funded by the University of Minnesota Duluth (29 years) and grants from the National Science Foundation (28 years) and the National Security Agency (21 years). It is one of the oldest and longest running REUs in the country. As of the end of 2007, the program has had 152 undergraduate participants and has resulted in over 140 professional publications.
Gallian's service record in the mathematical community is extensive. Most notably, he served a 2-year term as the President of the Mathematical Association of America starting in January 2007.[1] In addition, he has been co-director of Project NExT since 1998, Associate Editor of MAA OnLine since 1997, and a member of the advisory board of Math Horizons since 1993.
In 2000, Gallian was named by a Duluth newspaper as one of the "100 Great Duluthians of the 20th Century". Aside from his accomplishments as a mathematics professor, Gallian is well-known for his love of the Beatles and his story-telling ability.