AAAS Conference Feb 13

Bill Garrett (bgarrett@dimacs.rutgers.edu)
Mon, 23 Mar 1998 20:02:10 -0500


Hi All-

This is a lot late except as an informational exchange, but the American
Association for the Advancement of Science had its annual convention if
Philadelphia this year on Friday, February 13th. Appropriate to the
date, Bill Clinton showed up to make a speech! I suppose it's "kool" to
have the Pres speak at your gathering, but with all the disruption such
an event causes (in security issues alone) I like to think I'd not
personally jump at the chance to have someone of this importance
interrupt my convention.

Anyway, enough on the philosophical discussions. What I really want to
report was the reason I went to the AAAS conference in the first place,
and what made it worthwhile. As part of the confernceAAAS had a
geometry thread for the day and two of the presenters were Jeff Weeks
and John Conway! True to their form, they both were excellent in
presenting their material. Jeff's home page would make another
interesting site for our students to connect to (if we ever get
connected) and then discuss through video conferencing. Jeff is not
only a real intellectual, but he seems to me to be a natural teacher.
Ditto for John! These two guys were the highlights of the morning and
afternoon sessions. John's talk was on triangles and he shared that he
hopes to publish this information in a book on triangles that will,
appropriatley to John's thought processes be triangular in shape!! (I
don't expect it ti sit in the bookcase well, unless, of course it is a
right triangle.)

Hope all is well with each of you and that your school year is going
well. Mine has been really hectic but interesting!

Bill