Alan Tucker Vita

Vita of Alan C. Tucker

EDUCATION

B.A. Applied Mathematics, Harvard University, l965
M.S. Mathematics, Stanford University, 1967
Ph.D. Mathematics, Stanford University, 1969

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

1970 - present, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, SUNY at Stony Brook
1970-73 Assistant Professor
1973-78 Associate Professor
1978-89 Professor and Department Chair
1989- S.U.N.Y. Distinguished Teaching Professor
1989-2010 Deputy Department Chair and Undergraduate Program Director
2011- Affiliated Professor, Department of Mathematics
2016- Associate Dean for Operations and Resources, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
1969 - 1970 Visiting Assistant Professor, Math Research Center, Univ. of Wisconsin.
1976 - 1977 Visiting Associate Professor, Computer Science Dept , UC-San Diego.
1983 - 1984 Visiting Professor, Operations Research Dept., Stanford University

Grants and Awards - - - - Professional Activities - - - Books and Articles

MAJOR GRANTS in PAST 25 Years

  • NSF grant, "Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers," project director, $3,100,000, 2003-2007.
  • NSF grant, "Interconnecting Research and Education in the Mathematical Sciences at Stony Brook," co-project director, $1,300,000, 2000-2004.
  • NSF grant, "Long Island Consortium for Interconnected Learning," project director, $2,800,000, 1996-00.
  • NSF Research Careers for Minority Scholars grant, co-project director, $1,050,000, 1992-96.
  • Department of Education Fellowship Grants for Graduate Assistance Applied to National Needs, project director, 7 grants from 1990 to 2015, Total $3,960,000.

Earlier Grants National Science Foundation Math Sciences/Computer Science Research Grants, 1972-1986.
National Science Foundatin Policy Analysis Grant, 1981-83
Gas Research Institute Energy Modeling Grant, 1981-83

Awards and Recognition

  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2009.
  • Fellow, American Mathematical Society, 2011
  • Meritorious Service Award, Mathematical Assoc. of America, 2005.
  • National Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, Math Assoc. of America, 1994
  • Trevor Evans Award, Math Assoc. of America, 1996
  • PBS/Annenberg Foundation Award for Innovative Programs Using Tec hnology, 1997

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

APPLIED MATHEMATICS LETTERS, Editor-in-Chief, 2011- , Editorial Board, 1987- .
MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTER MODELING, Editorial Board, 1992-2010
NOTICES of AMER. MATH. SOCIETY, Editorial Board 1996-2000.
AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY, Editorial Board, 1977-91, 97-02.

National Research Council/Nat'l Academy of Engineering
U.S. Commission on Mathematics Instruction, 1981-1983
Math. Sciences Education Board: Undergraduate Math Advisory Board, 1993-1996
Panel on Advanced Study in School Mathematics, 1999-2001
Advisory Committee for Center of Advanced Study in Engineering Education, 2001-2005.
Program Committee for 2010 NAE Symposium on the Future of Engineering Education, 2009-10

National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education
Chair, Technical Advisory Committee, Course and Curriculum Development Program Review, 1994-96
Program Review Committee for Calculus Reform Initiative, 1993
Mathematics Community Representative, National Science Board Undergraduate Review Hearings, 1995
Math-Science Partnership Program Evaluation Advisory Committee, 2006-11
Member of numerous NSF project advisory committees

Mathematical Association of America
First Vice-President 1988-90
Member, Executive Committee and Board of Governors 1988-90
Chair, Education Council, 1991-1997
Chair, Publication Committee, 1982-86
Chair, New York Metropolitan Section, 1994-96
Governor, New York Metropolitan Section, 2017-2019
Selected Publications Area Service
Publications Committee, 1973-1986, 1991-94 (chair 1982-86)
Editorial Committee on Studies in Math., 1975-1986 (chair, 1980-86)
Editorial Committee on MAA Notes, 1981-1986 (founding chair)
Selection Committee for American Math Monthly editor, 1985 (chair ), 1990 (chair);
Selected Education Area Service
Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, 1976- 82, 1986-9, 2009-2012.
Panel on General Math. Sciences Program 1977-1982 (chair);
Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers, 1988-90, 2004-14
Committee on Participation of Women in Mathematics, 1988-94
Selected Other MAA Committees
Investment Committee, 1992-2000, 2003-14
Visiting Consultant and Lecturer (60 institutions visited), 1976-
Presidential Selection Committee, 1984-85, 1990-91, 1992-93 (chair), 1994-95 (chair).
Program Commitee for the Annual Summer Meeting, 1981-92, 1992-93
Polya Lectureship Committee (chair) 1989-90.

American Mathematical Society
Education Committee, 1991-2000
Task Force on Excellence in Scholarship, 1992-1998
Representative to Section X, 2004-07
Task Force on the First-Year Mathematics Experience, 2007-09

Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, Math Education of Teachers Project, Lead Writer, 1998-2001; Math. Educ. of Teachers II, Writing Team, 2009-2012

Mathematical Programming Society, Dissertation Prize Committee , 1987-93.

Operations Research Society of America, Rep. to AAAS section A , 1979-1986


Short Courses and Notable Lectures

Invited Hour Speaker, AMS-MAA Summer Meeting, Seattle, 1996
Georgia University Consortium Distinguished Visitor, 1982
Chautauqua Short Course Director: Combinatorial Problem-Solving, 1979-1983 at 8 sites; Unified Approach to Linear Algebra, 1985-87 at 2 sites.
MAA Summer Course Lecturer: week-long courses at 8 MAA sections on combinatorial problem-solving and applied linear algebra.

Academic Consultant and External Evaluator
Over 40 institutions visited or evaluated (1976- )
MathforAmerica, Co-Chair, Selection Committee; Advisory Committee, 2005-07

Non-Academic Consulting
RAND Corporation, l965-1972
AT&T (Long Lines Division), 1980
John Wiley & Sons, editorial advisor, 1977-88
Sloan Foundation, Consultant on "The New Liberal Arts", 1981-1985

Dissertation Students

Malcolm Easton 1973, Austin Teng 1982, Donna Wilson 1983, T-H Wu 1983, Svetlana Dynin 1985

PUBLICATIONS

Doctoral Dissertation: Two Characterizations of Proper Circular-arc Graphs, advisors: G. Dantzig and D.R. Fulkerson, Stanford University , 1969.

Books:
  1. APPLIED COMBINATORICS, John Wiley & Sons, First Edition 1980 ; Second Edition 1984; Third Edition, 1995; Fourth Edition, 2001; Fifth Edition, 2007: Sixth Edition, 2012.
  2. A UNIFIED INTRODUCTION TO LINEAR ALGEBRA: MODELS, METHODS, AND THEORY, MacMillan Publishing Co., 1988.
  3. LINEAR ALGEBRA: An Introduction to the Theory and Use of Vectors and Matrices, MacMillan Publishing Co (now Prentice-Hall), 1994.
  4. FUNCTIONING IN THE REAL WORLD, co-author, Addison-Wesley, Reading , MA, 1997, Second Eidtion, 2003, 425 pages.
  5. PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF MATHEMATICS, co-author, Springer, New York, 686 pages, 1997.

Articles
  1. Characterizing the Consecutive 1's Property, Proc. 2nd Chapel Hill Conf. on Combinatorial Math. and Its Appl., 1970, p.472 -477.
  2. Optimizing Binary Trees (with T.C. Hu), Proc. 2nd Chapel Hill Conf. on Combinatorial Math. and Its Appl., 1970, p.285-305.
  3. Characterizing Circular-arc Graphs, Bulletin Amer. Math. Soc. , 76 (1970), p.1257-1260.
  4. Heuristics in Manpower Scheduling (with E. Beltrami, L. Bodin, S. Altman), SUNY-Stony Brook Urban Science Report #8, 1971.
  5. Optimal Computer Search Trees and Variable Length Alphabetical Codes (with T.C. Hu), SIAM J. Applied Math. 2 (1971), p. 514-532.
  6. Matrix Characterizations of Circular-arc Graphs, Pacific J. Math. 39 (1971), p.535-545.
  7. A Structure Theorem for the Consecutive 1's Property, J. Combinatorial Theory 12 (1972), p.153-162.
  8. The Strong Perfect Graph Theorem for Planar Graphs, Canadian J. Math. 25 (1973), p.103-114.
  9. Perfect Graphs and an Application to Refuse Collection, SIAM Review 15 (1973), p.585-590.
  10. Structure Theorems for Some Classes of Circular-arc Graphs, Discrete Math. 7 (1974), p.167-195.
  11. Polya's Enumeration Formula by Example, Math. Mag. 47 (1974), p.248-256.
  12. The Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture and an Application to a Municipal Routing Problem, Graph Theory and Its Appl., Springer-Verlag, 1974, p.297-303.
  13. The Cost of a Class of Optimal Binary Trees, J. Combinatorial Theory B 16 (1974), p.259-263.
  14. Towards a Mathematics Major for the 1980's, Amer. Math. Monthly 81 (1974), p.891-899.
  15. Coloring a Family of Circular Arcs, SIAM J. Applied Math. 29 (1975), p.493-502.
  16. A Model for Municipal Street Sweeping Operations, Case Studies in Applied Math., Math. Assoc. of Amer., 19 [reprinted in Discrete and System Models (ed. W. Lucas), Birkhauser Boston, 1983, p.76-111].
  17. A New Proof of the Euler Circuit Theorem and its Application to Street Sweeping, Amer. Math. Monthly 83 (1976), p.638- 641.
  18. Ideas for an Applications-Oriented Graph Theory Course, Proc. of Conf. on Math. Models and Appl. in Undergraduate Math. (ed. M . Thompson), Indiana Univ., 1976, p.139-165.
  19. Critical Perfect Graphs and Perfect 3-Chromatic Graphs, J. Combinatorial Theory B 23 (1977), p.143-149.
  20. A Note on the Convergence of the Ford-Fulkerson Flow Algorithm, Math. of Operations Research 2 <1977), p.143-144.
  21. Circular-arc Graphs: New Uses and a New Algorithm, Proc. International Conf. of Graph Theory and Its Appl. (ed. D. Lick), Springer-Verlag, 1978, p.580-589.
  22. On Berge's Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture, Annals NY Acad. Sci. 319 (1979), p.530-535.
  23. Core Computer Science Curriculum and Mathematics, Computer Science and the Math. Sciences: Interfaces and Overlaps, Conf. Board of Math. Sciences, 1979, p.21-25.
  24. An Efficient Test for Circular-arc Graphs, SIAM J. of Computing 9 (1980), p.1-25.
  25. Linear and Circular Models for Graphs, UMAP Journal 1 (1980), p.35-46.
  26. Redefining the Mathematics Major, Mathematics Tomorrow (ed. L. Steen), Academic Press, 1981, p.47-55.
  27. Recommendations for a General Mathematical Sciences Major (report of the CUPM Panel on a General Mathematical Sciences Program ), Math. Assoc. Amer., 1982.
  28. Principles for a Lower-Division Discrete-Systems-Oriented Mathematics Sequence, The Future of College Mathematics (ed. A. Ralston & G. Young), Springer-Verlag, 1983, p.135-144.
  29. A Matroid Related to Finite Chainlike, Countably Infinite Networks (with A. Zemanian), Networks 12 (1982), p.453-457.
  30. Energy/Economy Model Linkage and Assessment (with M. Schnader, N. Hendricks, K. Tingley, N. Huslak), Brookhaven National Laboratory Report No. 33728, 1982.
  31. Uniquely Colorable Perfect Graphs, Discrete Math. 44 (1983), p.187-194.
  32. CUPM's Proposed Mathematics Sciences Major, Proc. 4th Interna tional Congress on Math. Education (ed. M. Zweng), Birkhauser, 1983, p.73-77.
  33. Coloring Graphs with Stable Cutsets, J. Combinatorial Theory B 34 (1983), p.258-267.
  34. An 0(n2) Algorithm for Coloring Planar Perfect Graphs (with D. Wilson), J. of Algorithms 5 (1984), p. 60-68.
  35. The Validity of The Perfect Graph Conjecture for K4-free Graphs, Topics in Perfect Graphs (ed. C. Berge & V. Chvatal), Annals of Discrete Math. 21 (1985), p. 149-157.
  36. The Validity of The Perfect Graph Conjecture for a Class of Partitionable Graphs, (with R. Giles and L. Trotter), Topics in Perfect Graphs (ed. C. Berge & V. Chvatal), Annals of Discrete Math. 21 (1985), p. 82-95.
  37. A New Start for Mathematics Curriculum, The First Two Years College Math. (ed. D. Albers), Springer-Verlag, 1985, p.145-152.
  38. An 0(qn) Algorithm to q-Color a Proper Family of Circular Arcs ( with A. Teng), Discrete Math. 55 (1985), p. 233-243.
  39. Coloring Perfect (K4-e)-free Graphs, J. Combinatorial Theory B 42 (1987), p. 313-318.
  40. A Reduction Procedure for Coloring Perfect K4-free Graphs, J. Combinatorial Theory B 43 (1987), p. 151-173.
  41. The Use of Computing in Teaching Linear Algebra (with H. Anton, E. Herman and G. Helzer), Computers and Mathematics, Math. Assoc. of America, Washington DC, 1988, pp. 55-61.
  42. Greedy Packing and Series-Parallel Graphs (with A. Hoffman), J. Combinatorial Theory A 47 (1988), p.6-15.
  43. Trends in Mathematics: Bad News, Good News, FOCUS 8 (1989), p.2-3.
  44. Agenda of the MAA's New Education Council, UME Trends 3 #1(1991), p. 3.
  45. Computers in Undergraduate Mathematics, Mathematics in College , Winter 1992, p 62-63.
  46. Moving Beyond Moving Beyond Myths, UME Trends 4 (1992), #3, p.4.
  47. The Growing Importance of Linear Algebra in Undergraduate Mathem atics, College Mathematics Journal, 24 (1993), p. 3-9.
  48. Balanced Matrices with Row Sum 3, Discrete Mathematics, 132 (1994), p. 395-399.
  49. Reflections on the joy of teaching, FOCUS, Newsletter of Math Assoc. Amer., 14 (1994), p.8.
  50. The Art Gallery Problem, Mathematical Horizons, 2 no. 1 (1994), p. 7-9.
  51. Assessing Calculus Reform Efforts, (with Jim Leitzel), Mathematical Assoc. of America, Washington, 1995, 97 pages.
  52. The Parallel Climbers Problem, Mathematical Horizons, 3 no. 2 (1995), p. 22-24.
  53. Models That Work: Case Studies in Effective Undergraduate Mathematics Programs, MAA Notes # 38, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, DC, 1996, 78 pages.
  54. Matrices and Matrix Algebra, article in Encyclopedia of Operations Research, ed. S. Gaus and and C. Harris, North-Holland, 1996, p. 381-384.
  55. Differing Viewpoints on the Teaching of Mathematics." editorial in A.M.S. Notices, 43 #12 (1996), p. 1468.
  56. The Role of Linear Algebra in Undergraduate Mathematics, Resources for Teaching Linear Algebra, ed. D Carlson et al., Math. Assoc. of America, Washington DC, 1997., pages 5-12.
  57. How Teachers Teach and How Students Learn," SIAM News, March 1998, p.14-17.
  58. Discrete Mathematics in the Core Curriculum, Confronting the Core Curriculum, John Dossey, ed., MAA Notes #45, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, DC., 1998.
  59. Polya's Counting Formula, section in CRC Handbook on Combinatorics, K Rosen et al, editors, CRC Press, New York, 2000, p. 120-127.
  60. New Thinking about the Mathematical Education of Teachers, Dialogues of NCTM, vol 4, #2, 2000, p.3.
  61. The CBMS Mathematical Education of Teachers Report, Proceedings of the Michigan State-Math Assoc of Amer. Conference on the Mathematical Education of Teachers, 2000.
  62. CBMS Preparing Report on Teacher Education, FOCUS, Math. Assoc. of Amer., October 2000 vol. 21, #6, p.6.
  63. What Kinds of Mathematical Knowledge Matter in Teaching, Knowing and Learning Mathematics, National Acad. Press, Washington, DC, 2001.
  64. The Mathematical Education of Teachers, lead writer, Conf. Board of Mathematical Sciences, 2001, 145 pages.
  65. Playbook of the Long Island Consortium for Interconnected Learning, PRIMUS, 2002.
  66. Perfect Graphs, chapter in CRC Handbook on Graph Theory, J. Gross and J. Yellen, ed., CRC Press, 2003.
  67. Technical Problems with Standards-Based Math Tests, Newsletter NCTM , May/June 2004, p. 5.
  68. In Testing: How Reliable are Year-to-Year Comparisons, Education Week , August 11, 2004.
  69. Polynomial Time Recognition of Unit Circular-arc Graphs, with G. Duran, A. Gravano and J. Spinrad, J. of Algorithms, 58 (2006), p. 67-78.
  70. Fractions and Units in Everyday Life, Calculation vs. Context, ed. B. Madison and L. Steen, Math. Assoc. of Amer., 2008, p. 75 - 86.
  71. PMET's Park City Workshops Help Re-engage Mathematicians in School Mathematics, FOCUS, Newsletter of the Math Assoc. of Am., Feb/March 2009, p. 33-34.
  72. Report of the AMS First-Year Task Force, with J. Lewis, Notices AMS , 56 #6 (2009), p. 754 - 760.
  73. AMS Homework Software Survey, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2010, 27 pages.
  74. Reviving the 1960's Mathematics Major, AMS Notices, 58 (2011), p. 704-705.
  75. What Every Mathematician Should Know About Standards-Based Tests, Amer. Math. Monthly, 118 (2011), p. 434-447.
  76. The Mathematical Education of Teachers, writing team, Conf. Board of Math. Sciences, Washington, DC, 2012, 86 pages.
  77. The History of the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics in the United States, Amer. Math. Monthly, 120 (1914), p. 685-701.