- Jim Propp
James Gary "Jim" Propp is a professor of mathematics at the
University of Massachusetts Lowell .In high school, Propp was one of the national winners of the
United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), and an alumnus of theHampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics . [cite web|url=http://www.hcssim.org/alumns.php|title=HCSSiM home page, Information about, by, and for HCSSiM alumns|accessdate=2008-05-03] Propp obtained hisA.B. in mathematics in 1982 atHarvard . After advanced study atCambridge , he obtained hisPh.D. from theUniversity of California at Berkeley . He has held professorships at seven universities, includingHarvard ,MIT , and theUniversity of Wisconsin .Propp is the co-editor of the book "Microsurveys in Discrete Probability" (1998) and has written more than thirty journal articles on
game theory ,combinatorics andprobability , andrecreational mathematics . He lectures extensively and has served on the Mathematical Olympiad Committee of theMathematical Association of America , which sponsors the USAMO. In the early 90s Propp lived inBoston and later inArlington, Massachusetts .In 1996, Propp and David Wilson invented
coupling from the past , a method forsampling from thestationary distribution of aMarkov chain amongMarkov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)algorithms . Contrary to many MCMC algorithms, coupling from the past gives in principle a perfect sample from the stationary distribution. [cite journal|author=Propp, James Gary, and Wilson, David Bruce|publisher=Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Random Structures and Algorithms|location=Atlanta, Georgia |id=MathSciNet|id=1611693|year=1996|journal=Random Structures & Algorithms|issn=1042-9832|volume=9|issue=1|title=Exact sampling with coupled Markov chains and applications to statistical mechanics|pages=223–252] [cite book|author=Propp, James, and Wilson, David|title=Microsurveys in discrete probability (Princeton, NJ, 1997)|publisher=American Mathematical Society |location=Providence, Rhode Island |series=DIMACS Ser. Discrete Math. Theoret. Comput. Sci.|id=MathSciNet|id=1630414|year=1998|volume=41|chapter=Coupling from the past: a user's guide|pages=181–192] His papers have discussed the use ofsurcomplex number s ingame theory ; [cite web|url=http://jamespropp.org/surreal/text.ps.gz|title=Surreal vectors and the game of Cutblock|author=Propp, James|date=1994-08-22] the solution to the counting of alternating sign matrices; [cite journal|author=Bressoud, David M., and Propp, James|title=How the alternating sign matrix conjecture was solved|journal=Notices of the American Mathematical Society|volume=46|year=1999|pages=637–646|url=http://www.ams.org/notices/199906/fea-bressoud.pdf] andoccurrences of Grandi's series as anEuler characteristic ofinfinite-dimensional real projective space . [cite web|author=Propp, James|title=Euler measure as generalized cardinality|year=2002|url=http://arxiv.org/abs/math.CO/0203289] [cite journal|author=Propp, James|title=Exponentiation and Euler measure|journal=Algebra Universalis|volume=29|issue=4|year=2003|month=October|pages=459–471|doi=10.1007/s00012-003-1817-1|url=http://arxiv.org/abs/math.CO/0204009]Propp is a member of the
National Puzzlers' League under the nom Aesop.cite journal|journal=The Enigma|publisher=National Puzzlers' League |title=Welcome, New and Returning Members!|volume=111|issue=1070|month=May|year=1993|author=Bagai, Judith E., ed.] He was recruited for the organization by colleague Henri Picciotto,cite journal|journal=The Enigma|publisher=National Puzzlers' League |title=New Members, Returning Member, Moving Members|volume=108|issue=1040|month=November|year=1990|page=1|author=Bagai, Judith E., ed.]cruciverbalist and co-author of the league's first cryptic crossword collection. [cite book|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812936605|title=National Puzzlers' League Cryptic Crosswords|author=Kosman, Joshua, and Picciotto, Henri|date=2005-11-08|accessdate=2008-08-22|publisher=Random House ] Propp is the creator of the "Self-Referential Aptitude Test", a humorous multiple-choice test in which all questions except the last makeself-reference s to their own answers. It was created in the early 90s for a puzzlers' party. [cite web|url=http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/srat-Q|title=Self-Referential Aptitude Test|author=Propp, Jim]He is married to research psychologist Alexandra (Sandi) Gubin. They have one son, Adam Daniel Propp-Gubin.
References
External links
*
* [http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/ Propp's website]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.