Mathematicians celebrate the 300th birthday of the great Swiss mathematician and scientist Leonhard Euler (1707-1783). To mark the occasion, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Atlanta leads celebrations of the world's most prolific mathematician: the intellectual ancestor of Sudoku; the man who studied how water flows; whose work was key in the construction of faster ships and who designed the most efficient pumps; who designed the perfect shape for the teeth of a gear; who developed the equations needed to make accurate enough lunar tables to determine longitude at sea; and who, according to legend, "calculated without apparent effort, as men breathe, or as eagles sustain themselves on the wing."
Joe Albree is assistant professor of Mathematics and Director of the AUM Pre-Engineering Program (PEN). His major research interests are in the history of mathematics and science in the American Colonies and the United States. He received his M.A. in mathematics (1969) University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a B.E. in mechanical engineering (1961) Vanderbilt University.