The 2005 Sehnert Lecturer

V. Frederick Rickey

Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematical Sciences
United States Military Academy at West Point
Winner of the Mathematical Association of America’s Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching (1993)

V. Frederick Rickey, a logician turned historian, has been a Professor of Mathematics at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, since 1998. After earning three degrees from the University of Notre Dame (Ph.D. 1968) he went to Bowling Green State University where he rose through the professorial ranks to the rank of Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus. He has broad interests in the history of mathematics and is especially interested in the development of the calculus.

He loves teaching and enjoys giving lectures to mathematicians about the history of their field.

2005 James Sehnert Lecture 

Isaac Newton: Man Myth, and Mathematics

7:30 pm Monday, October 24, 2005
Otto Budig Theatre (University Center)

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) did important work in mathematics and physics, but did you know he also worked in alchemy and church history? He wrote two of the greatest scientific works ever published, Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematics (1687) and Optics (1704), neither of which was primarily a mathematical work. We will describe his life, his education, and his work, especially his discovery of the calculus.

The annual James Sehnert Lecture was established in memory of, and endowed by the estate of, the late Professor James “Duke” Sehnert, a member of the NKU Department of Mathematics and Computer Science from 1970 to 1999.