David Marius Bressoud

DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics

Past-President, Mathematical Association of America

Areas of interest: number theory, combinatorics, analysis

``If it be then your Pleasure, ye Lovers of Study ...

``Where is the Life ...

My research interests lie in number theory and combinatorics, and especially partition theory (how many ways can you express an integer as the sum of positive integers?) with occasional forays into analysis (special functions, modular forms) and algebra (especially the theory of representations of the symmetric group). I am particularly interested in the mathematics of Srinivasa Ramanujan. My doctoral thesis proved and extended a number of his identities. I enjoy the history of mathematics and have drawn on it in my books:

Factorization and Primality Testing An introduction to number theory by way of techniques for factoring large integers or proving they are prime.
Second Year Calculus from celestial mechanics to special relativity Vector calculus in the language of differential forms with emphasis on the physical problems which gave rise to this subject.

A Radical Approach to Real Analysis, 2nd edition Introductory real analysis motivated by the problems of handling Fourier series.

Click here to access the Web Resources for the second edition of A Radical Approach to Real Analysis

Proofs and Confirmations: The Story of the Alternating Sign Matrix Conjecture, winner of the MAA Beckenbach Prize. Recent developments in combinatorics interwoven with some of my favorite topics.
A Course in Computational Number Theory Written with Stan Wagon, a computer-intensive introduction to Number Theory.
A Radical Approach to Lebesgue's Theory of Integration This is a sequel to A Radical Approach to Real Analysis, continuing the story of the development of analysis through measure theory and Lebesgue integration.

I also have a series of lectures that provide an introduction to the history of mathematics, starting with ancient Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics and continuing through the solution of the Poincaré Conjecture: Queen of the Sciences: A History of Mathematics. These are 24 half-hour lectures available from Great Courses.

photo by Charlie Reno, AP Calculus Reading, Louisville, KY, June 8, 2007

bressoud@macalester.edu - last updated: February 1, 2011