Bruce Shawyer

Professor Emeritus

B.Sc., PhD St. Andrews
Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, 1979
CMS Adrian Pouliot Award, 1996

Office: 
Phone: (709) 864-8784
Fax: (709) 864-3010

bshawyer@mun.ca

Personal website

Biographical Information

Dr. Bruce Shawyer earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of St. Andrews in the UK in 1963. He taught at the University of Nottingham from 1962-66 and at the University of Western Ontario from 1966-85. In 1985 he joined Memorial University as full professor, serving as head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics from 1985-91. Dr. Shawyer's professional interests in mathematics research include approximation of the sums of slowly convergent series, the summability of series and integrals, and Euclidean geometry. In the area of mathematics education he is interested in mathematics enrichment, why certain mathematical ideas are not well-learned and the propagation of mathematics. He is founder of the mathematical challenge for junior high school students and former head coach of the Canadian team for the International Mathematical Olympiad. Dr. Shawyer has authored 118 publications and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the ATOM (A Taste Of Mathematics) book series. He has taught mathematics courses at all levels.

Research Interests

Dr. Shawyer's research interests have changed over the years. He started the classical theory of Summability, but gradually drifted into applications of Summability Theory in Approximation Theory. More recently, He has revived an early interest in Euclidean Geometry, including the writing of LaTeX macros to make the drawing of diagrams much easier. Some representative publications are:

  • On Riesz Summability Factors, Proc. Glasgow Math. Soc., 5 (1962), 188-196 (Joint with D. Borwein)
  • Abelian Theorems for Borel-type methods of Summability, J. London Math. Soc., Series 2, 3 (1971), 169-177
  • Best Approximation of Alternating Series, J. Approx. Theory, 34 (1982), 397-422 (Joint with W.B. Jurkat)
  • Scaled Pictures in LaTeX, TUGBoat, 20 (1999), 376-377
  • Some Remarkable Concurrences, Forum Geometricorum, 1 (2001)

Dr. Shawyer also has a long standing interest in Problem Solving, having worked with students at Elementary, Junior High, Senior High and University levels.