Aloysius (Loek) G. Helminck
Aloysius "Loek" G. Helminck was born and raised in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and physics in 1975 and 1980, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1985. All three degrees were earned at the University of Utrecht in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Helminck held visiting positions at the University of Michigan and Brandeis University, and has had research fellowships at the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands, and Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Helminck joined the mathematics faculty at NC State in 1987 and was promoted to full professor in 2000.
Helminck's research focuses on symmetric spaces, their representations and applications. Symmetric spaces play an important role in many areas of mathematics, including geometry, singularity theory and, most importantly, representation theory. He has written over 40 papers, has supervised 6 Ph.D. students and has 6 current Ph.D. students. He has 2 books in preparation. His research has been supported in part by NSF, NSA, and a Dutch Corporation for 10 years.
Helminck chaired the departmental computing committee for many years. From 2004 until 2006 he served as interim associate department head under interim department head Fouque. When Fouque left in January 2006, Helminck became interim head and in July, 2006 he was appointed head of the mathematics department.
In 2005 Helminck obtained support for REU (Research experience for undergraduates) which brings undergraduates to the campus during the summer to participate in research activities supervised by faculty members. This program has continued each year since. In 2008 it was the largest such program in the country. Helminck obtained support for two additional summer programs: REG, a research experience for early graduate student and S-STEM, a university wide program for needy undergraduate and graduate students, in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.