Timeline

The Department of Mathematics

 

1887 March 7th, Legislation is passed establishing the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (Now North Carolina State University)
1888 The board of Trustees of State College approved the establishment of a professorships in agriculture, horticulture, practical mechanics and pure and applied mathematics and chairs in chemistry and English.
1889 J. H. Kinealy of St. Louis, MO was appointed chair of mathematics and practical mechanics.
The College opens for classes on October 3. Four years of mathematics were offered:
   Freshman year: Arithmetic and Algebra,
   Sophomore year: Algebra and Plane Geometry,
   Junior Year: Solid Geometry and Analytic Geometry, (Trigonometry was part of Surveying)
   Senior year: Calculus.
1891 R. E. L. Yates appointed as adjunct professor of mathematics.
1892 J. H. Kinealy resigns and Wallace C. Riddick appointed professor of mechanics and applied mathematics.
1893 June 20th, first graduation class of 19 students receive their degrees.
1906 Mathematics Department was founded as a separate department headed by Robert Edward Lee Yates. Previously mathematics was part of the Civil Engineering Department.
1923 College is reorganized into three schools: Agriculture, Engineering, Business and Science.
The department of mathematics is put in to the School of Business and Science under Dean B. F. Browne.

The school of Engineering headed by Dean W. C. Riddick

The Graduate School is established.

There were 6 faculty in the mathematics department. They were Professors R.E.L. Yates(head) and Harrelson; Assistant Professors H. Fisher , H. L. Mock and P. Williams; and Instructor F.A. Lee.

The courses offered were:
For undergraduates: Algebra, Solid Geometry, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry.
For advanced undergraduates and graduates: Differential Calculus, Integral Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Theory of Equations, Differential Equations and Advanced Analytic Geometry.

1928 Mathematics Department moved to Engineering School because of difficulties between Dean Brown and Math faculty.
1929 Vector Analysis and History of Mathematics offered for the first time.
1933 The three main institutions of higher education in the state: State College, University of North Carolina and the Womens college are reorganized to be part of one University of North Carolina System.
John Harrelson named Head of the Mathematics Department. He served just one year before being appointed Dean of Administration. His title was changed to Chancellor in 1945 and he served in this position until 1957.
1934 Hilbert A. Fisher appointed Head of the Mathematics Department. He served until the year 1956.

Dr. Fisher graduated from the Naval Academy in 1915. He joined the Math Department at State College in 1921, received an MS from N.C. State college in 1928 and received an honorary doctorate from Catawba College. He authored textbooks in Solid geometry, elementary algebra and college algebra.

In 1934 and 1935 Dr. Fisher hired the first Ph.D.'s in the department, all from prestigious universities. They were
in 1934 : J. G. Estes (MIT), J. M . Clarkson (Cornell) and in 1935:
L. S. Winton (Duke), J. W. Cell, (Illinois), J. Levine (Princeton), and R. C. Bullock ( Chicago). Two men, H. V. Park in 1934, and H. Nahikian in 1935 were also hired. These two were still finishing up their Doctorates from the University of North Carolina and received their Ph.D.'s soon thereafter. Estes died in an airplane accident, but the rest of these men were the core of the Mathematics Department for many years.

1946 A graduate program leading to the degree of M. S. in Applied Mathematics is introduced.
1947 The first three graduate degrees in mathematics granted. These were M.S. degrees in applied mathematics. The first undergraduate degrees in mathematics were not granted until 1957.
1955 Mathematics department obtained an analogue computer.
1956 The undergraduate program in mathematics initiated. It was called Engineering Mathematics. The first Freshman class, Fall 1956, consisted of five men.

1957 The first two undergraduate Engineering Mathematics majors graduate.

Dr. H. A. Fisher retires as department head.

Dr. J. W. Cell named head of Mathematics Department. He served until 1967.

1959 The first woman undergraduate Engineering math major graduates (Nancy Mumford).
1960 School of Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (now College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences) formed consisting of departments of mathematics, chemistry, physics and experimental statistics. The first Dean was Arthur Clayton Menius.

A chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, the National Honorary Society in Mathematics, established.

1961 The first graduates to receive the Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics.
1962 The Mathematics Department moves into the newly built Harrelson Hall
1964 The first Ph.D's in Applied Mathematics are awarded.
1966 Triangle Universities Computation Center is established by NC State, Duke University, and UNC-Chapel Hill in Research Triangle Park. It is one of the world's largest university computing centers.
1967 John Cell retired as department head due to bad health.
Hubert.V. Park appointed interim department head.
Computer science separated from the mathematics department.
1968 Nicholas. J. Rose appointed as department head. He served until 1977.
1969 Adjunct Professor Ian Sneddon of the University of Glasgow was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) to recognise his contributions on numerous government committees in the UK.
1972 Audio-Visual Tutorial Center begins its operations. Bob Savage is the Diredtor.
1977 James. Ortega became department head. He served until 1979.
1979 Walter Harrington appointed as interim Department Head.
1980 Ernest Burniston appointed as Head of the Mathematics Department. He served until 1989
1986 Dr. Hubert Park awarded the Watauga Medal.
The Watauga Medal was established by the Board of Trustees to honor those persons who have made notable contributions to the advancement of the University. It cannot be earned solely by prominence, scholarship or personal success. Recipients are determined after a selection process, involving faculty and administration officials on the campus, with further review by the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees.

The Center for Research in Scientific Computation (CRSC) begins. Carl Meyer is the first Director.

1989 Dr. Robert H. Martin appointed department head. He served until 1999.
1992 Tom Banks hired as University Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Center for Scientific Computation.
1999 Dr. Burniston starts a second term as department head. He served until 2002.
2000 C.T. (Tim) Kelley of North Carolina State University selected as editor-in-chief of the SIAM Journal on Optimization.
2001 Dr. Stephen L. Campbell elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE Board of Directors cited him "for contributions to the theory, numerical solution and application of nonlinear descriptor systems."
2002 Dr. Bernard Mair becomes Department Head.

Dr. H. T. Banks, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Research in Scientific Computation, awarded the W.T. and Idalia Reid Prize in Applied Mathemtaics by the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The prize honors outstanding research contributions to the area of differential equations and control theory.

Dr. C. T. "Tim" Kelley named Drexel Professor of Mathematics.

A Financial Mathematics Master's Degree Program approved by the Board of Trustees. This program involves four other departments besides mathematics, they are: Statistics, Agriculture and Resource Economics, Economics and Industrial Engineering. The program is directed by Dr. Jean-Pierre Fouque, Professor of Mathematics.

2003 Carla Savage, Professor of Computer Science and associate member of the Mathematics Department, and two collaborators, Charles "Chip" Killian, an undergraduate in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, and Jerry Griggs of the University of South Carolina solve 30-year-old problem about drawing Venn diagrams. (story in Science, Jan. 31, 2003)

Bernard Mair takes a leave of absence for the Spring Semester for personal reasons. Jean-Pierre Fouque is appointed Interim Department Head and John Franke is appointed Interim Associate Head.

Bernard Mair returns as Department Head on July 1. Franke is appointed Associate Department Head.

2004 Dr. Agnes Szanto, assistant professor of mathematics, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (Career) Award. This is the first Career award for the Department of Mathematics.
The five-year $440,000 grant was awarded to Szanto for her proposal entitled "Solving Over-Constrained Systems of Non-Linear Equations by Symbolic-Numeric Methods."

Bernard Mair resigns as Department Head on July 1.

Jean-Pierre Fouque is appointed Interim Department Head. Loek Helminck is appointed Interim Associate Department Head.

2005 Loek Helminck is appointed Interim Department Head effective July 1. Hien Tran is appointed Interim Associate Department Head.

Rober Bryant was selected as the 2005 recipient of the PAMS Distinguished Alumnus Award. Professor Bryant received his B.S. in mathematics from NC State in 1974 and is currently the J.M. Kreps Professor of Mathematics at Duke University.

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