It was my first taste of real math and I liked it. And yet, the basic phenomena of the theory could be explained and understood with very little background beyond calculus, linear algebra, and basic complex analysis. The main subject of Devaney’s book, iteration of functions in one real and complex dimension, was for me, an object of considerable mathematical beauty and complexity. Devaney’s book and Goldberg’s guidance was for me a critical bridge from the undergraduate idea of mathematics to the world of professional mathematics. Devaney was the first text that I read as an undergraduate that contained new mathematics! Today, I understand that much of modern mathematics requires sufficient background preparation that it is simply not accessible to a typical undergraduate. The text, “An introduction to chaotic dynamical systems”, by Robert L. My second substantive mathematical awakening was an undergraduate in a course in Dynamical Systems at Brooklyn College taught Lisa Goldberg. I understood then that one can tell stories with mathematics and having read that book, I have since felt compelled to share these stories with everyone I meet. It possesses it’s own syntax, and context, its own grammar, semantics, and pragmatics and that these components work together to create meaningful communication of beautiful abstract ideas among individuals. Walterine Matthews made me realize that mathematics is a language. This was my first real encounter with mathematics and in a sense mathematics became my religion. I would go to her house every Sunday, the traditional religious day for my family, for almost two years. My mother, Joan Blackman, hired a math tutor, her university colleague, Walterine Matthews, to work privately with me. I wanted to be a writer as a child and I did not do well in mathematics in my first year in high school and as such I was assigned to one of the lower math groups. We were, at QC, very early in our career, grouped by our ability to do mathematics. I am old boy of the famed Guyanese high school, Queens College (QC). Please describe an experience (or 2) that helped you discover/ cultivate your interest in the mathematical sciences. It is the only English speaking country among the twelve South American countries. It sits on the Atlantic coast of South America. Guyana is culturally a part of the Caribbean and geographically a part of South America. Dean, School of Science, Health and Technology
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