"As an undergraduate at Reed College, I developed a firm belief in the value of a liberal arts education. I have found Bard to be a wonderfully appropriate place for my interest in teaching mathematics in an environment that encourages spirited inquiry, and maintains a nice balance between individuality and flexibility on the one hand, and a traditional curriculum on the other. I have now been teaching and doing mathematics for many years, but discussing great mathematical ideas with students and working on my own research are still just as exciting today as it was when I started."
"My research focuses on a number of problems in the geometric topology of polyhedra. My initial area of interest was the study of simplexwise linear maps of disks in 2 and 3 dimensions. From there, each time I finished working on one problem I found myself natually led to another. For example, in the course of working on a proof about simplexwise linear maps, I was led to the question of the curvature of polyhedra, and that in turn led to related questions such as the axiomatic characterization of variants of the Euler characteristic. Additionally, ever since my first sabbatical, I have been engaged in writing mathematics textbooks. My three books are A First Course in Geometric Topology and Differential Geometry (Birkhäuser, 1996); Proofs and Fundamentals: A First Course in Abstract Mathematics (Birkhäuser, 2000; second edition Springer, 2010); The Real Numbers and Real Analysis (Springer, 2011). My current book project is a textbook for my math-for-liberal-arts course Data and Decisions."
"I was born in Norwalk, CT, in 1956, and spent part of my childhood in Connecticut and part in Savyon, Israel. I graduated from a public high school in Tel Aviv in 1974; I received a B.A. in mathematics at Reed College in 1978; and I received a Ph.D. in mathematics at Cornell University in 1983. I had a three-year post-doc at the University of Utah, and I have been at Bard ever since. I am married and have two children."
Ethan Bloch
Professor of Mathematics
Bard College
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