While at UMKC, I had Dr. Rhee for Analysis for two semesters, and Dr. Delaware for Linear Algebra out of Gilbert Strang (maybe in 1992). I was the guy with the long hair always in a ponytail, sitting in the back. This last year 2013-2014 I was at MIT on sabbatical as a Visiting MLK Professor and Gil was actually my host! He's a real nice guy.
I graduated from Cornell University in 1999 with my Ph.D. in Applied Math under the direction of Richard Rand, taught for a year as a Visiting Professor at Cornell and then taught at Cal Poly Pomona from 2000-2007. I co-founded the Applied Mathematical Sciences Summer Institute (AMSSI), an undergraduate research program jointly hosted by Loyola Marymount University, that ran from 2005 through 2007. I got tenure in 2005 and came to Arizona State University (ASU) in 2007 with tenure as Associate Professor, School of Mathematical & Natural Sciences.
I won the the 2011 NSF AGEP Mentor of the Year award, and in 2013 I was named the ASU Professor of the Year by the ASU Sun Devil Family Association (formerly Parents' Association). They select one each year from the faculty and it's based on letters of recommendations submitted by students, faculty, and administrators and some teaching and personal statements. Anyone selected as this automatically is named a Parents Association Professor.
The other big accomplishment that I have is the 2nd edition of my textbook "A Course in Ordinary Differential Equations" just came out. It's published by Chapman & Hall/CRC Press and you can find info about it at http://www.public.asu.edu/~swirkus/ACourseInODEs/index.html . It covers the standard ODE material but additionally includes a good dose of linear algebra, dynamical systems applications to things such as epidemiology, and a couple of topics I saw for the first time at MIT last year. Conversations with Gil Strang (and Haynes Miller) helped shape the revisions of the book. It also has MATLAB, Maple, and Mathematica "computer labs" that teach the students informed use of the technology and assumes no prior knowledge.
[Stephen earned Departmental Honors when he graduated in May 1994.]
Stephen Wirkus