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Anthony Iarrobino

Professor


Office Number:

526B NI

Phone Number:

373-5524

Fax Number:

373-5658

E-Mail Address:

a.iarrobino@neu.edu

Mailing Address:

Northeastern University
Department of Mathematics
360 Huntington Avenue,
Boston, MA 02115, USA



I grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a seacoast town, in a family of artists (members of Folly Cove Designers, painting, pottery, design), went to high school there and at Phillips Academy, to M.I.T. as an undergraduate 1961-1964, and as a graduate student, Ph.D. 1970. I then moved to Austin, Texas, a city of country and folk music, teaching at University of Texas for eight years, before coming to Northeastern in 1978. I have spent several years in France, one at University of Nice as a Senior Fulbright Fellow, another in Paris, as an NSF-CNRS exchange fellow; and have made other research visits to Europe, both West and East, as well as to Japan and Vietnam.

Research

PhD received from MIT


Areas of Interest

Algebraic geometry, commutative rings and their deformations, singularities of maps, families of points on a variety (Hilbert scheme of points), Gorenstein algebras, Waring problem for forms, hook differences of partitions, catalecticant matrices, level algebras, commuting nilpotent matrices.

Papers and Publications

Publications (list)
Annotated publication list
(Includes brief descriptions, and some context)
CV (pdf)

Overheads from talk "Irreducible components of families of level algebras'' at Fields Insitute, Toronto, August 2006 (pdf). See related ArXiv posting just below.

Preprint ``Reducible familly of height three level algebras'', ArXiv AC 0707.2148 (joint with M. Boij, 14 July, 2007).

Extended notes from a talk "Pairs of commuting nilpotent matrices and Hilbert function'' at Conference, ``Algebraic Combinatorics meets Inverse Systems'' at Montreal, January 2007. Work joint with R. Basili. (pdf, 48 pages, March, 2007).

Preprint "An involution on N_B, the nilpotent commutator of a nilpotent Jordan matrix B'' Work joint with R. Basili (Adobe 8 pdf, 41 p., August 6, 2007).

Article (with R. Basili): ``Pairs of commuting nilpotent matrices, and Hilbert function, J. Algebra Vol 320/3 pp 1235-1254 (2008).
See:
``Pairs of commuting nilpotent matrices, and Hilbert function'' ArXiv AC: 0709.2304 17p. (with R. Basili,

Overheads from a talk "An involution on the nilpotent commutator of a nilpotent matrix'' at Conference, ``Combinatorial Algebra meets Algebraic Combinatorics'' at Dalhousie University, January 2008. Work joint with R. Basili. (pdf, 31 pages, February, 2008).

Most recent Book:

    Power Sums, Gorenstein Algebras, and Determinantal Varieties

    by A. Iarrobino and V. Kanev, SLNM #1721, 346+xxix p., December, 1999.

Book Homepage

drawing by Dad, for frontispiece of book

Teaching

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING, ADVISING

Courses: I often teach Math U141, Math U142, Calculus I,II for majors in Health Sciences, or Geology, Economics, Psychology. These sections are oriented toward applications of calculus to motion and problems involving the connection between rate of flow of liquids and the amount; they require use of a graphing calculator. In Math U142 these sections also discuss probability density functions, as an example of the connection between rate and amount.

For Math majors and others, I have often taught the quarter analogues of advanced electives Math U575, Group Theory, Math U576 Rings and Fields, also Math U371 Linear Algebra, and Math U571 Advanced Linear Algebra.

More on my undergraduate teaching philosophy, and advising.

Current teaching


In Spring 2008 I am teaching one section of Math U141 Calculus, and coordinating it;
Math U141 Spring 08 Classnotes, links to further info
Math U141 Fall 07 Information (pdf)
Math U141 Spr08 syllabus - assignments)

also teaching one section of Math U575 Group Theory.
Math U575 Spring 08 Classnotes, links to further info
Math U575 Spring 08 Syllabus (pdf)

Retrospective Info

In Fall 2007 I taught Math U141 Calculus I in Sequences 2 and 3, and coordinated most sections.
Math U141 Fall 07 Classnotes, links to further info

In Spring 2007 I was on sabbatical and did not teach.

In Fall 2006 I taught one section of Math U141 (Calculus I), in sequence 3 and coordinated most sections.
Math U141 Fall 06 Classnotes, links to further info
Also I taught one section of Math U371 (Linear Algebra) in sequence 2.
MathU371, Fall 06 Prof. Iarrobino Syllabus
MathU371, Fall 06 Prof. Iarrobino Classnotes website.

In Spring 2006 I taught one section of Math U141 (Calculus I) in Sequence 2:
Math U141 Spring 06 Classnotes, links to further info

also one section of Math U142 (Calculus 2) in Sequence 3, and coordinated it.
Math U142 Spring 06 Classnotes, links to further info
Math U142 Home page: Calculus II General information (who should take it?), links to past syllabi.

GRADUATE TEACHING, GRADUATE ADVISING, MENTORING and VISITING SCHOLARS

Graduate Courses
I have taught Algebra III (Galois Theory), Commutative Algebra, Algebraic Geometry, as well as more specialized reading courses.

Ph.D. Students
I have been dissertation advisor to 3 Ph.D. students,: David Berman, Abderrahim Miri and Susan Diesel.
I was informal advisor to Art Weiss who completed his Ph.D. in 2006 at Tufts, on work begun with me. His advisor was George McNinch. Art's Ph.D. dissertation is posted to ArXiv: Some non-unimodal level algebras

Postdoctoral students
In recent years, I have had a number of postdoctoral visitors, and have been senior mentor to two NSF Postdoctoral Fellows at Northeastern, Carol Chang, in algebraic combinatorics, and Hal Schenck in commutative algebra. [These are a nationally competitive fellowship, and only about 100 are awarded through all the US, each year].

Visiting Scholars
Mats Boij: various 2006-7.
Roberta Basili, summer 2003,2006 (working with J. Weyman and I).
Hema Srinivasan. January-June 2000.
Ruth Michler, Associate Professor, Univ. North Texas: NSF POWRE VISITOR for 2000-2001.

Other

Tragic accident

Dr. Ruth Michler died Nov. 1, 2000 in an pedestrian-construction truck accident a block from the Mathematics Department. She was returning to the Department on her bike, to get printout, to apply for a Radcliffe Bunting Fellowship for 2001-2002. She had just given talks at BU's Algebra Seminar on Mon. Oct 30, and to NU's GASC Seminar on Mon. Oct 16.

Commemorative Web Page for Dr. Ruth Michler

AWM Memorial Web Page for Dr. Ruth Michler
Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize of AWM


Other Academic Activities:

Often Co-Organizer of GASC Seminar, Co-Organized "Syzygy" Conference at NU, Mentoring, Issues in Academic Tenure Process, Referee, Reviews by A. Iarrobino
Sabbatical 2007: Projects with R. Basili, M. Boij, Participant in Moduli Year at Mittag-Leffler Institute.

Other Interests:

Hiking, Swimming, Sea Kayaking, International Exchange/Visits, Art and Design, Psychology/Counseling, Dance


Some other math links:

Visual Calculus (U. Tenn)

Prof. Bob Case (NU) on Teaching (Address upon receipt of Tepper Haimo Award).

AWM site (American Women in Mathematics): this site is of interest not only to women. It also has links to some resources in K-12.

AMS (American Mathematical Society): a main resource for mathematicians.

Commutative Algebra Center This has many links to commutative algebra sites, conferences in Commutative Algebra, commutative algebraists.

The Kepler Sphere packing conjecture solved Stacking oranges in crates as usual is the best way! (this is T. Hale's homepage, with details)

Fermat's Last Theorem (from Wolfram's MathWorld). Proven by A. Wiles, with an assist by R. Taylor, 1995 Annals Paper.

Mark Haiman's proof of the n! conjecture,using the ``Isospectral'' punctual Hilbert scheme, see "Hilbert schemes, polygraphs, and the Macdonald positivity conjecture".

   My review for AMS of Mark's related earlier article, "$q,t$-Catalan numbers and the Hilbert scheme"

7 Millennium Problems (Clay Mathematics Institute)Prize problems for the next century. The site contains brief descriptions of each problem for the curious lay person, as well as links to downloadable technical accounts by experts (pdf files).

Math for K-12 students, or recreation

Geometry CenterThe Center is no longer in existence, but the site is maintained.
Science U.Fun site, maintained by a commercial spin-off of the Geometry Center.
Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Days
Ask Dr. Math(Swarthmore College Project)
Education resources (AWM)

A few other links:

Boston Sea Kayaking Club

Some organizations involved with peacework:

American Friend's Service Committee
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Medicins Sans Frontieres



Last modified June 23, 2008




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