Mathematics Professor Look Gives Invited Lecture and Authors Publication on Complex Dynamics

The Randolph Lecture in Mathematics Education is an invited lecture given at the fall meetings of the Seaway Section of the Mathematical Association of America. Dr. Look was selected as this year’s speaker and gave his presentation, “’Rethinking Assessment to Increase Student Engagement and Preserve Instructor Sanity.” In this talk, Dr. Look discusses alternatives to current grading and assessment practices. Link to the conference website: https://maaseaway.org/meetings/home/2023/fall

Look also published “A Bounded Sequence of Bitranstive and Capture Sierpinski Carpet Julia Sets for 3-Circle Inversion,” (Fundamenta Mathematicae, 262 (2023), 205-220). In this paper Dan creates a map by combining simple geometric actions generated by circle inversion and proves the existence of a bounded sequence of parameter values for which the Julia set, which is the locus of mathematical chaos, that are each Sierpinski Carpets. Link to paper abstract: https://www.impan.pl/en/publishing-house/journals-and-series/fundamenta-mathematicae/all/262/3/115111/a-bounded-sequence-of-bitransitive-and-capture-sierpinski-carpet-julia-sets-for-3-circle-inversions

Look received his PhD from Boston University studying Complex Dynamics, and he currently serves as the Rutherford Professor of Mathematics at St. Lawrence University. His research includes the dynamics of rational functions (with a particular interest in Sierpinski curve Julia sets and Julia sets related to the geometric action of circle inversion), text mining/stylometry, popular culture uses of mathematics in early 20th century pulp fiction, and mathematics pedagogy. Among other work, he has performed stylometric analyses of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories and their various pastiches and written about H. P. Lovecraft’s use of non-Euclidean geometry for an invited paper in Lovecraft Annual.