Welcome to Jerry Grossman’s home page.

    Professor Jerrold W. Grossman
    Department of Mathematics and Statistics
    Oakland University
    Rochester, MI 48309-4485 [that’s Michigan]

        PHONE:	 (248) 370-3443
        FAX:	 (248) 370-4184
        OFFICE:  Room 346 SEB
        E-MAIL:  grossman@oakland.edu

    (click on picture for bigger image; 
     photo by Jack Nachman)

Here are some useful or interesting WWW pages

• AMS directory, AMS, MSC, MAA,OU MSN, MSN, authors, ZBL, Jahrbuch, Euler
• answers, msnsearch, ZIP2, google, webmail, Voyager, library, quotes, Erdös (Erdős) Numbers
• BW:MSC, Det. News, Det. FP, Oak. Press, WWJ, NYT, Wash. Post, CNN, WUOM
• Undergrad, equivs, MacTutor, bio index, math depts, catalogs, MathDL, epinions, nerd-in
• math topics, Borwein, Chaitin, backgammon, ACBL, ACBLd12, MiBC, units-calc
• ZIP codes, postal rates, whitepages, anywho, phone book, MapQuest, math1, E*Trade
• math links, comp. scientists, DBLP, e-cards, MITcards, Banner, real Banner, netflix
• dict1, dict2, colleges, earth coords, html guide, advanced html, ascii codes, time, age
• IRS, TIAA, CPI, national debt, MIGHTY, MathOnWeb, AAA, cartalk, shortz, dictionary
• lowest, compare, orbitz, Delta, NW, SW, Chinesename, calendar
• mathworld, offbeat math, DART Chance, anagrams, sudoku, cheapbooks (1) (2), sequences
• MI colleges, Yahoo, infoseek, metacrawler, ask, OU-AAUP, OU fix, OU phone, reals
• accuweather, cnn weather, windchill, Consumer World, pop clock, Michigan MAA, JSTOR
• translate1, Traveler, mathnerds, NP-completeness, math forum, Friedman’s math, eBay
• NickMath, Prob.of.week, google math, DOAJ, Barnes&Noble, amazon, grammar
• math articles, google usenet, sci.math, turtlestuff, congressperson, OED, OUFac
• Math-Net, common names, grief, Comp. Friends, Chicago manual, usage, wolfram
• picturefile, ACM portal, Combinatorialists, chaos, scirus, grapher, MathPro, Wikipedia

Office hours and web pages for my courses

However, I am currently on sabbatical leave (until August 15, 2008), and therefore will be in my office on a less regular basis. If you have advising questions, please contact Professor Darrell Schmidt; his e-mail is schmidt@oakland.edu. If you have other questions not for me personally, please contact the Department of Mathematics and Statistics office (248-370-3430).

Here are the home pages for my Oakland University courses. Students in these courses should consult them regularly for information, homework solutions (where appropriate), test results, etc.

• HC 207, Winter 2007
• MTE 211, Winter 2007
• MTE 210, Fall 2006
• MTE 211, Fall 2006 (This is actually a link to the Winter 2007 page.)
• MTE 405, Fall 2006
• MTE 210, Winter 2006 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 211, Winter 2006 (This is actually a link to the Winter 2007 page.)
• MTE 210, Fall 2005 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 405, Fall 2005 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 210, Fall 2005 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• APM 569, Winter 2005
• MTH 155, Fall 2004
• MTE 210, Fall 2004 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTH 475, Winter 2004
• MTE 211, Winter 2004 (This is actually a link to the Winter 2007 page.)
• MTE 210, Fall 2003 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 210, Winter 2003 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• APM 569, Winter 2003 (This is actually a link to the Winter 2005 page.)
• MTE 210, Fall 2002 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 405, Fall 2002
• APM 263, Fall 2002
• MTE 210, Fall 2001 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 405, Fall 2001 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2002 page.)
• APM 263, Fall 2001 (This is actually the link to the Fall 2002 page.)
• MTE 210, Winter 2001 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• STA 225, Winter 2001
• MTE 210, Fall 2000 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTE 405, Fall 2000 (This is actually the link to the Fall 2002 page.)
• APM 263, Winter 2000 (This is actually the link to the Fall 2002 page.)
• MTE 210, Winter 2000 (This is actually a link to the Fall 2006 page.)
• MTH 154, Fall 1999
• CSE 511 & APM 567, Winter 1999

Erdös Number Project

Research

In addition, I am fond of mathematical puzzles and games, and I like to propose and solve mathematical problems, such as appear in the American Mathematical Monthly and Mathematics Magazine, or occur on the Putnam competition. I’m particularly proud of a problem in The Mathematical Intelligencer, about a new fundamental constant of mathematics.

Other professional activities

My textbook, Discrete Mathematics: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Applications (Macmillan/Prentice-Hall, 1990), is suitable for a sophomore level course covering logic, set theory, graph theory, combinatorics, and algorithms for mathematics and computer science majors. Here is the errata list for the book.

The third part of a faculty member’s job is “service” on committees and similar duties. On this front I have served as an academic adviser, associate chair of the department, adviser for the student math club (S.A.M.), member of the University Senate and the College of Arts and Sciences Assembly (and their Steering Committees), bargainer for our AAUP chapter, director of the state High School Visiting Lecture Program, editor of the state MAA Newsletter, member of the state high school mathematics prize competition examination committee, Governor of the Michigan Section of the MAA, member of the committee overseeing MAA’s high school competitions, member of the Educational Materials Committee of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and recorder of mathematical materials for the blind and dyslexic (through RFB&D), to name a few highlights. I also review research articles for Mathematical Reviews, and have consulted for Ford Motor Company and numerous textbook publishers. Recently I've been getting involved in some mathematics education projects, such as this one (look at the videos). Recognition has included the Michigan Section MAA Distinguished Service Award in 2005 and the national MAA Certificate for Meritorious Service in 2007.

Memberships

Brief biography

*My academic genealogy proceeds backwards from Kan through Samuel Eilenberg, Karol Borsuk, and Stefan Mazurkiewicz to Waclaw Sierpinski. Sierpinski seems to have had two academic advisors: Georgy Voronoy in fact, and Stanislaw Zaremba officially. From Voronoy the chain goes through several Russians: Andrei Markov, Pafnuty Chebyshev, and Nikolai Brashman, before ending, I am told, at the Viennese astronomer and mathematician Joseph Johann von Littrow (1781-1840). From Zaremba the chain goes through lots of other famous names, including Simeon Denis Poisson, Joseph Lagrange, Leonhard Euler, Johann Bernoulli, Jacob Bernoulli, and Gottfried Leibniz. Two web sites track such genealogy, one in theoretical computer science (not updated or maintained) and one in mathematics.

My curriculum vitae (also available in TeX and postscript) contains a complete list of publications and more details on all of the above topics if you’re really interested. Click here for a summary in narrative form prepared recently in connection with being honored by the OU Board of Trustees. And if you’re hell-bent on personal stuff, here are some pictures of me at six months being held by my godfather, Phil, my family (1984: me, my wife Suzanne, my sister-in-law Kathy, my brother Richard, my mother Florence holding my daughter Pamela, and my father Isadore holding my nephew Conrad), my maternal grandparents, Julius and Rebecca, taken around their wedding date (August 26, 1900), and my paternal grandparents, Samuel and Tillie (Lichtigman) Grossman, taken when they were about 23 and 20 years old, respectively (circa 1907).

Personal information

 I live in Rochester Hills, Oakland County, Michigan,
 (about 30 miles north of Detroit)
 within bicycling distance of the university, 
 with my wife, Suzanne Zeitman, 
 but no longer our cat, Carrie, who died 
 on 1/3/00 two months shy of her 21st birthday.
 Sadly, Suzanne’s horse, Smarty, died on 6/10/00.
 She now has Abby.  I’m allergic to horses.

 The University of Michigan 
 is not far from here, and it has lots of resources.

 In my spare time I like to travel, visit zoos,
 shoot photographs,
 play tournament bridge (3200 master points),
 try to get better at backgammon,
 sail Siegfried (my Laser), cross-country ski,
 collect turtle art, attend conferences,
 eat, cook, drink wine, eat in nice restaurants,
 and go to good movies. 

 Also, I am trying to learn to play the piano.

 Here are some more pictures of me, Suzanne, and us on a cruise.

 This is our daughter, Pamela Jane Grossman (1984—1990).

 There is a sculpture of a Galapagos tortoise
 by William (Bill) Allen (other Allen works)
 at the Detroit Zoo (newsletter)
 in her memory.
 (There is also a fund in her memory at Oakland University.)

 Maybe it’s turtles all the way down.

 Here’s more about turtles.