1993 Clavius Activities at Boston College

List of Clavius mathematicians

Clavius Group at Boston College in 1993

Hugh Albright FSC
Tom Banchoff
John Blanton
Tom Cecil
Lawrence Conlon
Margaret Freije
Richard Freije
James Heitsch
Michele Intermont
Ron Knill
John MacDonnell SJ
Joseph MacDonnell SJ
Michael May SJ
John Pouikis CSB
Sr Barbara Reynolds SDS
Patrick Ryan
Paul Schweitzer SJ
Dennis Snow
Joanne Snow
James Stasheff
William Stoeger SJ
Pedro Suarez SJ
Carlos Vasco SJ
Pawel Walczak
Andrew Whitman SJ

Clavius Community Notes

1993 BOSTON COLLEGE, CHESTNUT HILL, MA
Meeting #31: 27 June to 31 July

Donald Monan, SJ, President of Boston College provided excellent accommodations and a congenial atmosphere for the very active summer. We are also indebted to administrators like Fr. Jim Woods, SJ and department chairman William Keane for their generosity and assistance. After having spent a summer at Boston College in 1969 we found that much had changed in the Department during that period of 24 years. The Department gave us a warm invitation finding office space for everyone as well as a class room for our exclusive use, as well as the opportunity to use the library and the computer network of the College. Our housing needs were met with equal satisfaction In one Rubenstein Residence Hall where the arrangement was ideal. But in addition, the Administration gave us a generous subsidy.

Our numbers this summer were 27 participating mathematicians from the Group with 6 other colleagues. The actual Clavius Community, including the families, grew to 55 persons. In addition, 39 guests passed through at various times during the summer We ran our usual Special Topics Seminar in which 12 persons presented various topics over a wide range of fields. The Differential Geometry Seminar continued with 6 presentations, almost all of which were recent or ongoing research. We initiated a new seminar this year in the History and pedagogy of Mathematics, and 5 presentations were given. Finally we continued with our study seminar on Coexter Groups for a total number of 18 sessions.
Community Life was equally active and varied. One of these liturgies was prepared by the children of the Group including the sermon, the prayers of the faithful and the music. One of the special events was the dinner given in the Showroom of the Conti center by the dean of the Graduate School and the Department of Mathematics. Another spectacular dinner was offered by the Jesuit community for the whole Clavius group. We Clavians also hosted a Luncheon Buffet for the Department, with 9 persons from the Department present. For our annual St Ignatius Feast we had a total of 40 Clavians and 6 guests.

There also occurred two Faith Discussions on the topic of the Intellectual Apostolate and the meaning of a Catholic University. Since all are actively engaged in such apostolates, the remarks and comments came from deep convictions and experience. It was a grand opportunity to express our successes and doubts and was a satisfying event.
There were some memorable events that occurred during the year. We all rejoiced in the ordination of Michael May to the priesthood. This is the fifth Jesuit that has been ordained while a member of the Group. We also received with pride the news that three member of the Group received Teacher of the Year awards: Carlos Vasco from the Organization of American States, Thomas Banchoff from Brown University and Joanne Snow from St Mary’s College at Notre Dame.

Elegant dinner for the Clavius Group at Boston College in 1993

Seminars

Topics seminar

7/2	Protogeometry: The Bare Bones of Geometry	Carlos Vasco
7/6	Foliation Cones	Lawrence Conlon
7/7	Foliations of Constant Curvature	Paul Schweitzer
7/8	Stability of Compact Leaves of Foliations	Paul Schweitzer
7/13	Some Anomalous Knot Complements	Ron Knill
7/15	Manifolds of Positive Curvature: A Survey	Julio Vidaurrazaga
7/19	Fermat’s Last Theorem	Margaret Freije
7/20	Dolbeault Cohomology of Homogeneous Line Bundles	Dennis Snow
7/22	Cryptology: How to Get Students Interested in Number Theory	John Kurtzke
7/26	Mathematical Modeling of AIDS Epidemic Data	Pedro Suarez
7/27	Not too many Fixed Points (Nielson Fixed Point Theory)	Nancy Rallis
7/28	Coarse Cohomology for Foliations	James Heitsch

Differential Geometry seminar

7/19	Dupin hypersurfaces in affine differential geometry-I	Patrick Ryan
7/20	Dupin hypersurfaces in affine differential geometry-II	Patrick Ryan
7/22	Focal points and support functions in affine differential geometry	Thomas Cecil
7/23	Dupin hypersurfaces in affine differential geometry-III	Ross Niebergall
7/26	Affine theory of surfaces in 4-Space	Martin Magid
7/27	Dupin hypersurfaces in affine differential geometry-IV	Ross Niebergall

History and Pedgogy seminar

7/14	What to do about Calculus? — A Discussion of Issues and Concerns Raised by Curriculum Reform	Barbara Reynolds
7/15	A “Mathematica” Approach to Ruled Surfaces	Joseph MacDonnell
7/21	Research on Quantatative Reasoning Processes	Carlos E. Vasco
7/22	Interactive Computer Graphics Laboratories for Calculus and Geometry of Surfaces	Thomas Banchoff
7/29	Development and Applications of the Function Concept	Stanley Bezuszka

Coxeter Groups seminar

Review of Results of Last Summer
Introduction to the Coxeter Graph
Coxeter Graphs and Associated BIlinear Forms
Overview of Groups corresponding to Coexeter Graphs
Calculation of the Positive Definiteness of some Coxeter Graphs
The Crystallographic Groups
Subgraphs of Coxeter Graphs
Subgraphs of Coxeter Graphs
Root System of F4
Calculation of Crystallographic Groups
Classification of Finite Coexter Graphs
The Exceptional Groups
The Conway Atlas of Finite Groups
The Order of the Exceptional Groups
Maximal Tori–from a Compact Connected Lie Group to its Weyl Group
An Affine Reflection Group
Other Examples of an Affine Reflection Group
The Dynkin Diagrams — Some Algorithmic Methods