1998 Clavius Activities at Fairfield University

Clavius group at Fairfield University in 1998

List of Clavius mathematicians

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

1998 FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY, FAIRFIELD, CT
Meeting #36: 28 June to 3 August

The presence of the Clavius Group at Fairfield University was heralded by two appearances of Tom Banchoff, a presentation to the Humanities Institute in February and another appearance in May as he received a Fairfield University honorary degree.

Tom Banchoff, the most recent Clavius graduate of Fairfield University
with honorary Clavian, Fr. Aloysius Kelley, S.J. (5/17/98)

The presentation was held in the Kelley theater of the Regina Quick Center on Tuesday, 10 February. Attending were about 120 students, faculty, staff and representatives from at least three other CT colleges. Tom was assisted by Sam Dooley of IBM in New York who has worked with Tom on past presentations.
The presentation was accompanied by various visual media illustrating both the work Flatland by E. A. Abbott and the fourth dimension. This was followed by a lively question/answer period which was followed by a reception in the foyer of the Center.

Tom Banchoff

At the invitation of Fr. Al Kelley, president of Fairfield University the Clavius group returned again to this beautiful and spacious campus (second largest of all 28 Jesuit colleges in the U.S.) We were offered very convenient accomodations including the large lightsome classroom of the Bannow science building for our seminars. Each member had the use of an office which were generously loaned by the regular faculty and the department. In the Bannow faculty lounge a daily coffee hour was an occasion to meet other members of the Fairfield community. We had full library privileges and full access to Fairfield’s computer facilities and recreation center. We lived in townhouses Boscovich and Clavius.The daily social hour took place in Boscovich 11-5. The Jesuits cooked and ate in Boscovich 11-6. This separation of the various functions of the community has proved to be one of the most successful arrangements to alleviate the pressures of community meals. Besides this the courts and fields were at the disposal of the Group when not in use for University activities. Once again community liturgies with a daily homily were consistently attended by the entire community. For the first time we all (families and singles) shared a common dinner which had been prepared by our expert chefs. On 23 July, Monsignor Scull, pastor of Pius X church nearby, invited the whole Clavius Group over to his parish for a lobster dinner. Also on 24 July we celebrated Joe MacDonnell’s 50th anniversary Mass with President Al Kelley, followed by an elaborate dinner with many invited guests which was planned by Barbara Knill.

Fr. Al Kelley was a gracious host, always interested and very helpful in assisting the Clavius community. The summer was quite productive, in part due to the very special attention shown by department chair, Dr. Joan Weiss and the mathematics secretary Ms. Joan Hanlon. The mathematics was plentiful, varied, and venturesome. We ran four seminars and the participation was outstanding. The community aspect of the Clavius Group is still quite remarkable.

Clavius group at Fairfield University in 1991 next to the renowned Clavius Townhouse

Seminars

Computational Geometry Lecture Series

7/2, 7/3, 7/6, 7/7
Patrick J. Ryan, McMaster University
Introduction to Computational Geometry, I-IV
Abstract
This is a series of lectures intended for a mathematical audience giving an introduction to the field of computational geometry. It will be a condensed version of a course taught to senior Computer Science majors and beginning graduate students at McMaster University.

7/7, 7/10, 7/13, 7/14
Patrick J. Ryan , McMaster University
A Hierarchy of Programming Languages, I-IV
Abstract
This is a series of lectures intended for a mathematical audience. I will give an overview of some of the attributes that distinguish programming languages. Using a common syntax throughout, we will proceed through a hierarchy of languages, starting with a language that has much in common with familiar imperative languages to one with the features of a functional language. This set of lectures is a condensed version of a course taught to upper-division Computer Science majors at McMaster University and is based on a text by Samuel Kamin of the University of Illinois. The perspective adopted here is attractive from a mathematical point of view. Interpreters are available for all languages discussed so that you can experiment with them if you like. Also, the source code for each interpreter is available (in Pascal and C). New features can be added to a language by modifying and recompiling its interpreter.

Geometry Seminar

7/6 Vibrating Wallpaper Patterns
Frank Farris, University of Santa Clara (visiting at Brown University)

7/9 Double Tangencies for Surfaces in 4-space
Dan Dreibelbis, Brown University and University of North Florida

7/14 Geodesics of various surfaces
Joseph MacDonnell, S.J. Fairfield University

7/21 The Moduli Space of Flat Connections for a Riemann Surface
Stephen Sawin, Fairfield University

Topology Seminar

7/10 Introduction to the Seiberg-Witten invariants for smooth 4-manifolds
Paul Schweitzer, S.J., Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro

7/13 Introduction to Clifford Algebras
Julio Vidaurrazaga, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez

7/16 Seiberg-Witten invariants for smooth 4-manifolds III The Dirac operator
Paul Schweitzer, S.J., Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro

7/17 Approximating a Topological Space by any Fixed Space
Some Results on Comonads – The Approximation
Michele Intermont, Kalamazoo College

7/20 Higher Spherical Euler Characteristics
R.J. Knill, Tulane University

Differential Geometry Seminar

7/16, 7/17Clifford Algebras and Isoparametric Hypersurfaces
Thomas E. Cecil, College of the Holy Cross
Abstract
Isoparametric hypersurfaces are hypersurfaces in a sphere that have constant principal curvatures. They were first studied by E. Cartan in the 1930¹s and the class of isoparametric hypersurfaces contains many interesting and beautiful examples. We will discuss the work of Ferus, Karcher, and Munzner who use representations of Clifford algebras to construct a large class of isoparametric hypersurfaces.
Mostly we will be concerned with representations of Clifford algebras and related algebraic structures. The talks should be easily understood by those in the representations seminar. For the first talk, at least, only linear algebra is required.

7/20 The Magid-Ryan conjecture for Lorentzian affine hypersurfaces
Luc Vrancken, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

7/21 Affine surfaces in R^5 with zero cubic form
Martin Magid, Wellesley College