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 the Hampshire 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 his A.B. in mathematics in 1982 at Harvard. After advanced study at Cambridge, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He has held professorships at seven universities, including Harvard, MIT, and the University 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 and probability, and recreational mathematics. He lectures extensively and has served on the Mathematical Olympiad Committee of the Mathematical Association of America, which sponsors the USAMO. In the early 90s Propp lived in Boston and later in Arlington, Massachusetts.

In 1996, Propp and David Wilson invented coupling from the past, a method for sampling from the stationary distribution of a Markov chain among Markov 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 of surcomplex numbers in game 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] and occurrences of Grandi's series as an Euler characteristic of infinite-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 make self-references 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

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* [http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/ Propp's website]