Timothy G. Feeman – författare

In 1979, the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology was awarded jointly to Allan McLeod Cormack and Godfrey Newbold Houns eld, the two pioneering scienti- engineers primarily responsible for the development, in the 1960s and early 1970s, of computerized axial tomography, popularly known as the CAT or CT scan. In his papers [13], Cormack, then a Professor at Tufts University, in Massachusetts, dev- oped certain mathematical algorithms that, he envisioned, could be used to create an image from X-ray data. Working completely independently of Cormack and at about the same time, Houns eld, a research scientist at EMI Central Research Laboratories in the United Kingdom, designed the rst operational CT scanner as well as the rst commercially available model. (See [22] and [23]. ) Since 1980, the number of CT scans performed each year in the United States has risen from about 3 million to over 67 million. What few people who have had CT scans probably realize is that the fundamental problem behind this procedure is essentially mathematical: If we know the values of the integral of a two- or three-dimensional fu- tion along all possible cross-sections, then how can we reconstruct the function itself? This particular example of what is known as an inverse problem was studied by Johann Radon, an Austrian mathematician, in the early part of the twentieth century.

'Every map is a tool, a product of human effort and creativity, that represents some aspects of our world or universe...[This] course was powered by the belief that by exploring the mathematical ideas involved in creating and analyzing maps, students would see how mathematics could help them to understand and explain their world' - from the Preface. ""Portraits of the Earth"" exemplifies the AMS' mission to bring the power and vitality of mathematical thought to the nonexpert. It is designed to teach students to think logically and to analyze the technical information that they so readily encounter every day. Maps are exciting, visual tools that we encounter on a daily basis: from street maps to maps of the world accompanying news stories to geologic maps depicting the underground structure of the earth.This book explores the mathematical ideas involved in creating and analyzing maps, a topic that is rarely discussed in undergraduate courses. It is the first modern book to present the famous problem of mapping the earth in a style that is highly readable and mathematically accessible to most students. Feeman's writing is inviting to the novice, yet also interesting to readers with more mathematical experience. Through the visual context of maps and mapmaking, students will see how contemporary mathematics can help them to understand and explain the world. Topics explored are the shape and size of the earth, basic spherical geometry, and why one can't make a perfect flat map of the planet.The author discusses different attributes that maps can have and determines mathematically how to design maps that have the desired features. The distortions that arise in making world maps are quantitatively analyzed. There is an in-depth discussion on the design of numerous map projections - both historical and contemporary - as well as conformal and equal-area maps. Feeman looks at how basic map designs can be modified to produce maps with any center, and he indicates how to generalize methods to produce maps of arbitrary surfaces of revolution. Also included are end-of-chapter exercises and laboratory projects.Particularly interesting is a chapter that explains how to use MapleR add-on software to make maps from geographic data points. This book would make an excellent text for a basic undergraduate mathematics or geography course and would be especially appealing to the teacher who is interested in exciting visual applications in the classroom. It would also serve nicely as supplementary reading for a course in calculus, linear algebra, or differential geometry. Prerequisites include a solid grasp of trigonometry and basic calculus.

This textbook is designed for a first course in linear algebra for undergraduate students from a wide range of quantitative and data driven fields.

This textbook is designed for a first course in linear algebra for undergraduate students from a wide range of quantitative and data driven fields. By focusing on applications and implementation, students will be prepared to go on to apply the power of linear algebra in their own discipline. With an ever-increasing need to understand and solve real problems, this text aims to provide a growing and diverse group of students with an applied linear algebra toolkit they can use to successfully grapple with the complex world and the challenging problems that lie ahead. Applications such as least squares problems, information retrieval, linear regression, Markov processes, finding connections in networks, and more, are introduced on a small scale as early as possible and then explored in more generality as projects. Additionally, the book draws on the geometry of vectors and matrices as the basis for the mathematics, with the concept of orthogonality taking center stage. Important matrixfactorizations as well as the concepts of eigenvalues and eigenvectors emerge organically from the interplay between matrix computations and geometry.

The R files are extra and freely available. They include basic code and templates for many of the in-text examples, most of the projects, and solutions to selected exercises. As much as possible, data sets and matrix entries are included in the files, thus reducing the amount of manual data entry required. 

This textbook is designed for a first course in linear algebra for undergraduate students from a wide range of quantitative and data driven fields.

The basic mathematics of computerized tomography, the CT scan, are aptly presented for an audience of undergraduates in mathematics and engineering.

The basic mathematics of computerized tomography, the CT scan, are aptly presented for an audience of undergraduates in mathematics and engineering. Assuming no prior background in advanced mathematical analysis, topics such as the Fourier transform, sampling, and discrete approximation algorithms are introduced from scratch and are developed within the context of medical imaging. A chapter on magnetic resonance imaging focuses on manipulation of the Bloch equation, the system of differential equations that is the foundation of this important technology.

Extending the ideas of the acclaimed first edition, new material has been adeed to render an even more accessible textbook for course usage. This edition includes new discussions of the Radon transform, the Dirac delta function and its role in X-ray imaging, Kacmarz’s method and least squares approximation, spectral filtering, and more. Copious examples and exercises, new computer-based exercises, and additional graphics have been added to further delineate concepts. The use of technology has been revamped throughout with the incorporation of the open source programming environment R to illustrate examples and composition of graphics. All R code is available as extra source material on SpringerLink.

From the reviews of the first edition:

“This book is valuable, for it addresses with care and rigor the relevance of a variety of mathematical topics to a real-world problem. …T

his book is well written. It serves its purpose of focusing a variety of mathematical topics onto a real-world application that is in its essence mathematics.” –The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Vol. 51 (12), December, 2010

“This new book by Timothy Feeman, truly intended to be a beginner’s guide, makes the subject accessible to undergraduates with a working knowledge of multivariable calculus and some experience with vectors and matrix methods. …author handles thematerial with clarity and grace…” –The Mathematical Association of America, February, 2010