Dennis DeTurck

Dennis M. DeTurck (born July 15, 1954) is an American mathematician known for his work in partial differential equations and Riemannian geometry, in particular contributions to the theory of the Ricci flow and the prescribed Ricci curvature problem. He first used the DeTurck trick to give an alternative proof of the short time existence of the Ricci flow and has found other uses since then.

He received an M.A. (1978) and Ph.D. (1980) in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. His Ph.D. supervisor was Jerry Kazdan.

He is currently Evan C Thompson Professor for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 2004. In 2002 DeTurck won the Haimo Award from the Mathematical Association of America for his teaching.^[1] Despite being recognized for excellence in teaching, he has been criticized for his belief that fractions are "as obsolete as roman numerals" and suggesting that they not be taught to younger students.^[2]

Selected publications

• Dennis M. DeTurck, Existence of metrics with prescribed Ricci curvature: local theory. Invent. Math. 65 (1981/82), no. 1, 179–207.
• Dennis M. DeTurck, Deforming metrics in the direction of their Ricci tensors. J. Differential Geom. 18 (1983), no. 1, 157–162. (explains the DeTurck trick)

References

1. ^ "The Mathematical Association of America's Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics". MAA Online. The Mathematical Association of America. 2007-04-10. http://www.maa.org/awards/Haimo_Recipients.html. Retrieved 2007-12-26. "...in order to honor college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions." 
2. ^ Maureen Milford (2007-12-26). "Educators divided by fractions debate". Philadelphia: The News Journal. Archived from the original on 2008-04-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20080407093017/http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071226/NEWS03/712260337/1006/NEWS. Retrieved 2007-12-26. "A few years ago, Dennis DeTurck, an award-winning professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, stood at an outdoor podium on campus and proclaimed "Down with fractions!"" 

External links

• Dennis DeTurck at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
• Article with some career and biographical info
• Dennis DeTurck's homepage

Persondata
Name	Deturck, Dennis
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Date of birth	1954-07-15
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