Leading Mathematician Joins Colorado State University as Albert C. Yates Endowed Chair in Mathematics

One of the country’s leading mathematicians and a native of Fort Collins has joined Colorado State University as the first recipient of the Albert C. Yates Endowed Chair in Mathematics.

Daniel Rudolph, a renowned researcher in the area of dynamical systems, started  his first semester this spring at Colorado State, the institution his parents and numerous other relatives attended. Some family members still live in the area, and Rudolph said it was a wonderful personal and professional opportunity to be able to continue his career in Colorado State’s Department of Mathematics.

"There aren’t very many positions like this," Rudolph said, noting it’s rare for a public university such as Colorado State to have an endowed chair in mathematics. "To have the opportunity for resources to be available to pursue my own science is phenomenal. For a scientist, especially a mathematical scientist, the most valuable aspect is time: time to think, time to work."

Rudolph is well known in the mathematical world. He delivered an invited lecture at the most recent International Congress of Mathematics, held every four years. He has published two books and more than 60 research articles in refereed journals. At his previous institution, the University of Maryland, he directed a program that brought minority students to campus for intense study in preparation for graduate school.

"Dan brings a lot of experience as well as adding considerable expertise in analysis and dynamical systems," said Simon Tavener, chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Colorado State. "He is extremely well connected in the mathematical world and gives our department and university a lot of exposure. Further, Dan can help particularly our junior faculty to develop mathematically. We’re very pleased that Dan has joined our department and look forward to his contributions in the next few years. We have great hopes for what he will accomplish at Colorado State."

A pure mathematician, Rudolph focuses his work on statistical and probabilistic aspects of dynamical systems. Dynamics is about investigating the process of change, observing it and using statistical and probabilistic notions to understand. As holder of the endowed chair, he teaches one course a semester and devotes the rest of his time to research and service to the university. He is teaching a graduate course this semester but hopes to also teach undergraduates.

"Most of the teaching I’ve done in the past 20 years has been a mixture of graduate-level courses and undergraduate courses such as engineering calculus or business calculus," Rudolph said. "I enjoy working with a broad range of undergraduates and trying to help them understand the value and the power that a strong base in mathematics gives."

Rudolph graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1968, earned a bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1972 and a doctorate from Stanford University in 1975. He spent four years doing post-docs before taking a job as an assistant professor at Stanford. He joined the University of Maryland in 1981.

He is happy to join the community of scholars in the Department of Mathematics, the College of Natural Sciences and Colorado State University. He looks forward to working with faculty, students and staff to build the mathematics department.

"The people here are just tremendously rich in their talents, and I’m really excited to be joining this group," Rudolph said. "This chair is just a tremendous opportunity for me, and I hope for the department to continue the blossoming that’s been going on here."

The Albert C. Yates Endowed Chair in Mathematics was established by the Fort Collins-based Bohemian Foundation in honor of former Colorado State president Albert Yates, who stepped down in 2003 after 13 years at the university.

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