Please consult my complete list of publications and theses supervised (below) for an indication of my research interests. More recently, these have included computational and statistical molecular biology.

Biography

After serving in the Australian Army in WWII, 1943-1945, I received my B.A. (Honours) in the School of Mathematics of Melbourne University in 1947, and my M.A. in 1949, for a thesis entitled The General Theory of Elasticity in Three Dimesions, under Professor Sir Thomas Cherry F.R.S. With a Research Fellowship at Clare College, Cambridge I proceeded to my Ph.D. in 1953 for a thesis entitled Problems in Continuum Mechanics, under Professor Sir Geoffrey Taylor, OM, FRS. Returning to Australia, I worked on structural problems of the Mosquito Bomber as a senior scientific officer at the Aeronautical Research Laboratory of the Department of Defence.
With a Fulbright Fellowship, I accepted in 1956 an invitation by Professor William Prager to join the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, where I have been ever since (as Chairman 1976-82), except for visits to other Universities, once to Stockholm with a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on statistical meteorology. My interests have included scientific computation and problems in statistical inference. Since given an additional appointment in the Department of Community Health in The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, my interests have also included statistical problems in public health and, more recently, in molecular biology. I was instrumental in starting modern scientific computing at Brown (as Director of the Computing Laboratory)and in founding the Center for Statistical Science in the Medical School. I have been Managing Editor of the Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, the first US Applied Mathematics journal, since 1965.

Institutions

University of Cambridge

Research Description

Theses supervised:

Adenstedt, Rolf Karl (Ph.D.: Applied Mathematics, 1967)
Title: Stochastic regime processes

Downie, Thomas Moore (Sc.M.: Applied Mathematics, 1959)
Title: Numerical calculation of slip-line fields

Gillen, Patrick Joseph (Ph.D.: Applied Mathematics, 1996)
Title: Markov Transition Models: Applications to Health Care Research

Intrator, Orna (Ph.D.: Applied Mathematics, 1991)
Title: Methods for exploring survival data

Jones, Richard Hunn (Ph.D.: Applied Mathematics, 1961)
Title: Spectral estimates and their distributions

Meyer, Carl Franics (Sc.M.: Applied Mathematics, 1966)
Title: Operations research in banking -- a stochastic approach

Neff, John William (Sc.M.: Applied Mathematics, 1962)
Title: Symmetric Boolean operators and their use in quasi-symmetric functions

Stone, Raymond Lewis (Sc.M.: Applied Mathematics, 1959)
Title: Automatic minimum weight design of steel frames on the IBM 650 computer

Valentin, Richard Alan (Sc.M.: Applied Mathematics, 1961)
Title: A matrix method for the numerical determination of hydrodynamic stability

Awards

Fulbright Fellowship 1955
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship 1962-63

Affiliations

Life Member, American Mathematical Society
Charter Member, Republican National Committee since 1986
Senior Member, University Club of Providence
Member, Bristol Yacht Club
Previously Member of: Association for Computing Machinery
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
American Meteorological Society
American Statistical Association
etc.,etc.

Funded Research

Numerous Foundation, IBM, NSF, ONR and NIH grants and contracts.

Teaching Experience

I have taught the following courses, amongst others:Methods of Mathematical Physics, Theory of Elasticity, Scientific Computation with FORTRAN, Statistical Inference, The Mathematics of Insurance and Risk Theory, Statistical Analysis of Time Series, Statistal Survival Theory, Computational Probabilty and Statistics, Regression Analysis, etc. etc.


Directed seven Ph.D. Theses

Voted Most Popular Professor in Applied Mathematics (student survey in the "The Catalyst"), Winter 1996.

Advisor on Society of Actuaries examinations and careers in insurance to numerous undergraduates.

View My Full Publication List in pdf format

Selected Publications

• Books: International Dictionary of Applied Mathematics (Editor-in-Chief), D. Van Nostrand Company, 1960. Applications of Digital Computers (Editor), Gin and Company, 1963. Advances in Computers, Vol. 10 (Guest Editor), Academic Press, 1970. Statistical Computer Performance Evaluation (Editor), Academic Press, 1972. A Short Course in Computational Probability and Statistics (With U. Grenander), Springer-Verlag, Second Edition, 1977.