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Eric Rawdon's Home Page
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Research
I work in Physical Knot Theory, a
combination of traditional Topological Knot Theory with the reality of
tying knots with physical materials. My research focuses on knot
energies, in particular thickness and ropelength. My
thickness page gives a brief explanation of my early research.
Research related links:
Collaborators (past and present):
Undergraduate Collaborators With Websites (past and present):
About Me
Positions Held
- I am currently an Associate Professor at the University of St. Thomas.
- I was at Duquesne (pronounced `doo-cane') University from 2001-2005 as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and from 2005-2006 as an Associate Professor. (pronounced `doo-cane').
- I was at Chatham College from 1997-2001 as an
Assistant Professor of Mathematics.
Education
- I was in graduate school (1992-1997) getting my Ph.D. in
mathematics at the University of Iowa.
- I was an undergraduate (1988-1992) at St. Olaf College
(um yah yah!).
- Prior to that, I was in high school, junior high, elementary
school, unschooled, and not yet born. I am not aware of any
prior lives (although I'm a big fan of the Albert Brooks movie
Defending Your Life which has a wonderful scene about prior lives).
Professional Links
Mathematics
Knot Theory and Knot Manipulation Software
Other Interests
- I have a wonderful wife named Gretchen and two wonderful sons,
Sam and Mikkel (rhymes with tickle).
Sam is 6 years 2 months and 12 days old.
Mikkel is 3 years 10 months and 30 days old.
- Anyone acquainted with me knows that I love the
Minnesota Vikings. They make my life interesting in the fall.
- I also follow the
Minnesota Timberwolves,
Minnesota Twins, and
Pittsburgh Penguins, after having grown up with the North Stars.
- My wife and I like to travel. So far, I/we have hit Honduras,
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Tanzania, Malawi,
most of Western Europe, Canada (gasp!), Greece, China, Malaysia,
Singapore, Turkey, and Japan.
- I like to brew beer. The best homebrew shop around is
Windriver Brewing Company.
- My St. Olaf buddies and I make a yearly pilgrimage to the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The walleye and smallies
go on high alert as we offer tasty leeches at a low price.
Unfortunately, the northerns usually get their share too.
- I have made many a set of golf clubs in my day. My favorite
club component maker these days is McCann Golf.
- I have 4 holes in one (although I am on a
19 year cold streak). The first happened on the storied
11th hole at Parkview Golf Club in Eagan, MN as a twelve year old.
I powered a 4-wood (woods were actually made of wood back then)
144 yards from the ladies tee into the jar.
Four years later (to the day), I hit a 156-yard 8-iron into the cup
on the same hole. Four years later (not to the day), I had two aces
in the same week: a bladed 166-yard 8-iron at the
17th hole at Parkview Golf Club and a beautifully struck 180-yard
5-iron at Northland Country Club in Duluth, MN. I haven't hit the
hole since.
- My latest athletic exploits (if you can call them that) have sent
me into racquetball and squash, although my real love is
broomball.
Other Stuff
- This page is (very minorly) powered by PHP.
I just started messing with it recently.
- UNIX helper page - I tend to forget unix commands, so I made a
page of the unix commands I use infrequently and always forget.
- TOROS (Thickness Or Ropelength Optimizing System) is a command
line program for use on SGI or Linux workstations. The executables
will be available some day. Of course, now it's outdated and we
have software called RidgeRunner (in collaboration with
Michael Piatek and Jason Cantarella).
- Perl Scripts - ones that could conceivably be useful to you.
Communication
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Email:
ejrawdon [at] stthomas.edu
or
my first name followed by my last name [at] gmail.com
University Mail:
Eric Rawdon
University of St. Thomas
2115 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
USA
Office Phone:
(651) 962-5558
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