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Education

Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX	B.S. Chemical Engineering May 1983
Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX	M.S. Mathematics August 1988

Thesis: An Analysis of an Antiplane Shear Crack in a Nonhomogeneous Elastic Medium

University of Oklahoma Norman, OK

M.A. History of Science July 1996

Thesis: Edmund Stone and the Calculus Textbook Tradition of Eighteenth-Century England

University of Oklahoma Norman, OK

Ph.D. History of Science May 2002

Dissertation Title: Building the Foundation for an American Mathematical Community: The Bowditch Generation, 1800-1838. Abstract

Employment

Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas—Fort Smith, 1988-present.
Duties teaching courses in Mathematics and History of Science.

Adjunct Professor, University of Arkansas—Little Rock, 2001.
Duties teaching History of Science.

Process Engineer, Diamond Shamrock Corporation, 1983-1986.

Papers and Publications

Contributed essays to Science in Dispute:

• "The Earth is the Center of the Universe."
• "The Earth is not the Center of the Universe".
• "Leibniz was the true founder of Calculus"
• "Leibniz was not the true founder of Calculus"

Contributed essays to Science and Society Through Time:

• “The Rise of Probabilistic and Statistical Thinking.”
• “Overview of Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century.”
• “The Proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem.”
• “The Birth of Graph Theory: Leonhard Euler and the Konigsberg Bridge Problem.”
• “Umar Al-Khayyami and the Solution of Cubic Equations.”
• “Popular Mathematics in the 1990s.”
• "The Three Unsolved Problems of Greek Geometry."
• Biographies of Pierre Laplace, Andrew Wiles, Nathaniel Bowditch and Benjamin Peirce.

Contributed Papers:

• “Tension Between Practical and Theoretical Science in Nineteenth-Century America: The Case of Nathaniel Bowditch,” contributed paper to the History of Science Society Annual Meeting, November, 2001.

• "Contemporary Accounts of Early American Science," contributed paper to the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, April 2001.

• “Mathematics in the American Journal of Science and Arts, 1819-1840,” by invitation at the Joint Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, January, 2001.

• “Nathaniel Bowditch and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” contributed paper to the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, April 2000.

• “George Berkeley and the Foundations of Calculus,” contributed paper to the Mathematical Association of America Oklahoma-Arkansas Regional Meeting, March 1997.

• “Early Calculus Textbooks,” contributed paper to the Mathematical Association of America Oklahoma-Arkansas Regional Meeting, March 1996.

Affilications

• Mathematical Association of America
• History of Science Society

Curriculum Development

New courses developed in the History of Science:

• The History of Modern Science
• Science and Society in America
• History of Science Through Biography: Mathematical Practitioners in America
• The History of Mathematics

College Leadership

• Faculty By-Laws Committee
• Chair, University of Arkansas—Fort Smith Faculty Council
• General Education Committee
• Faculty Senate
• Scholarship Committee
• Computer Advisory Committee

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W.Todd Timmons

Building the Foundation for an American Mathematical Community: The Bowditch Generation, 1800-1838

ABSTRACT

The first third of the nineteenth century was an important period for the development of American mathematics: Nathaniel Bowditch emerged as a new leader with an international reputation; general topic scientific journals filled a void by publishing mathematical papers until permanent mathematical journals were established later in the century; and American mathematicians began to turn away from the British-dominated mathematical philosophy of their past and to turn towards the modern mathematical approach as represented by the French textbook authors. Each of these factors contributed to a work-in-progress as American mathematicians struggled to build a foundation upon which a research community would form.

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