Christopher Shaw

I am an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Columbia College Chicago working in the Science and Mathematics department, where I have been (starting as Assistant Professor) since fall 2010. I did my PhD at the University of Maryland, College Park (2008), and I was previously Associate Director of the Norbert Wiener Center for Harmonic Analysis and Applications at Maryland, where I also taught large lecture courses in elementary calculus. My teaching work at Columbia ranges from introductory (liberal arts mathematics), to intermediate undergraduate (calculus sequence) to advanced undergraduate (linear algebra, differential equations). I am also the co-editor of the Illinois Mathematics Teacher, the official journal of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In the meantime, I am working on research in the area of model theory of weakly o-minimal structures, as well as working in mathematics pedagogy.

Trivia

Erdős number : 3 (Laskowski-Shaw; Laskowski-Shelah; Erdős-Shelah)
Notable mathematical progenitors and family members :
- Great-grandfather: Gerald Sacks, recursion theorist and author of the classic book Saturated Model Theory
- Great-great-great-grandfather: Alonzo Church, pioneering logician, 1903-1995
- (Great)⁸-grandfather: Siméon Poisson, French mathematician who presaged many ideas continued by Riemann, 1781-1840
- (Great)¹⁰-grandfather: Leonhard Euler, whence the constant e; "Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all," 1707-1783
- (Great)¹⁶-grandfather: Marin Mersenne, the philosopher, musician, theologian and mathematician whence "Mersenne Prime", 1588-1648
- Second cousin, 12 times removed: Immanuel Kant, Prussian philosopher and author of Critique of Pure Reason, 1724-1804
- Eighth cousin, 6 times removed: Alfred Tarski, the father of modern mathematical logic and co-source of the Banach-Tarski paradox, 1901-1983
- Eighth cousin, 6 times removed: Norbert Wiener, famous in the mainstream as the founder of cybernetics, but also a pure mathematician of note and the namesake for the Norbert Wiener Center for Harmonic Analysis and Applications, of which I was formerly Associate Director, 1894-1964
- Based on slightly shakier data going back to the 15th century, it looks like my 22nd cousin, 6 times removed, is Carl Gauss, who I think is kind of the holy grail of mathematical relationships, 1777-1855
- But I am more happy to note the connection to David Hilbert, who is therefore my 22nd cousin, once removed, 1862-1943