History of Arnold Rossand his Program

Arnold Ephraim Ross (1906 -

2002)

Born in Chicago: 1906

Odessa: 1909 - 1924

Born in Chicago 1906

Odessa 1909 - 1924: S. O.

Shatunovsky

Returned to Chicago 1924:

University of Chicago: E. H.

Moore

L. E Dickson

Ph.D. in 1931 On Representation of Integers by Indefinite Ternary Quadratic Forms.

Married Bee Horecker 1931.

1940s

After some postdoc positions, Ross earned tenure at St. Louis University.

Hired as Head of the Math Department at the University of Notre Dame in 1947.

Began a summer program for in-service high school math teachers in 1947.

Mentored some talented young students.

Notre Dame

Origins of “Ross Program”

1947 - 1956: Teachers

1957: Students observed by teachers.

Later years: More students, and ran a “Sunday school” during the year.

Teaching styles

TextbooksDefinitionTheoremProofApplications

(examples)

Teaching styles

TextbooksDefinitionTheoremProofApplications

(examples)

RossExamplesConjecturesTheoremGeneralizationDefinition

Ross Problem sets

Numerical Problems (Some food for thought)

PODASIPs

Exploration

Techniques of Generalization

Ohio State

Moved to OSU in 1963 First summer program here in 1964.

Boom times for science education,

large enrollments.

MOTTOS

From the beginning, Ross’s motto was:“Think deeply of simple things.”

From the Prologue: “A neat formulation of results is the end product of understanding.

All too often we present to the novice the result of someone else’s successful struggle for understanding, in the forlorn hope that this may provide an easy way out.”

Retirement 1976

Arnold Ross stepped down as chair.

But he wanted his Program to continue, following the same teaching methods.

Moving the Program (1970s)

India (P. Bambah)Germany (P. Roquette)Australia (K. Mahler)

University of Chicago (F. Browder) 1975 - 1979Restart at Ohio State: 1979

Bee Ross

For all those years, Bee was a great supporter of Arnold’s projects.

1980s

Bee Ross suffered a long decline, died in 1983.

Arnold continued to lecture every summer.

Gloria Woods organized things.

Several OSU faculty taught summer courses.

Late 1980s: Alumni started new

programs:

Glenn Stevens (PROMYS)Max Warshauer (Honors Math Camp)

General feeling: Ross Program would fade.

Madeleine Ross

A surprise announcement in 1990.

Arnold became more involved in running the “Ross Young Scholars Program”.

1996 Reunion-Conference

Celebrating Arnold’s 90th birthday.

Fundraising concerns.

TransitionRoss stepped down in August 2000.

“95th Birthday Reunion-Conference” 2001.

Arnold Ross died September 25, 2002.

New generation: Changes?

Some traditions from early days have been lost.

New traditions have begun.

Others have stayed unchanged.

UNCHANGED: key components

Number Theory - with enough time to

work.

Hard problem sets, with many threads.

Community - students working together.

Counselors - most important piece.

They make the Program succeed.