Bruce Pourciau, professor of mathematics, came to Lawrence in 1976, specializing
in the study of necessary conditions in infinite dimensional optimization
theory, and he continued to work in that area over the next 15 years, until
a scholarly partnership with another Bruce led him in an intriguing new direction.
As he tells it: “In the fall of 1990, the late Bruce
Brackenridge, professor of physics and an historian of science, asked if I could answer
a certain mathematical question arising out of Isaac Newton’s great
work, The Principia. Once lured into Newton’s mind and work,
I was hooked, and ever since I have been joyfully investigating the mathematical
and logical foundations of The Principia, with time out now and
then for studies in the philosophy of mathematics.” Professor Pourciau
recently published “The Importance of Being Equivalent: Newton’s
Two Models for One-Body Motion,” in Archive for History of Exact
Sciences. That
article and his article, “Newton’s
Argument for Proposition 1 of The Principia,” published a year
ago in Archive for History of Exact Sciences, have been selected to be reprinted
in the forthcoming
volume, Infinitesimals, edited by William Harper and Wayne Myrvold. Recipient
of Lawrence’s Excellence
in Teaching Award in 2000, he currently teaches
upper-level courses in algebra, analysis, and topology, as well as first-year
calculus courses.
