After leaving a desirable industry position during a boom time economically (1987), and finishing a Ph.D. in a decidedly more challenging time (1991), I was nearing the end of a productive and stimulating postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1995. The early 90s was a very difficult time in the academic job market. The economy was not strong, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 caused former-Soviet-bloc scientists and engineers to turn to the US and elsewhere for opportunities in significant numbers. Multiple searches over three years finally resulted in a good fit with a tenure-track position at an R1 university, UD. Thank you to the then-Chair Pam Cook and the department for taking a chance on me.

Guiding the next generation of mathematicians 

UD was a good fit for me in many ways.  There was an agreement to add a course or two that benefitted both me and the department (PDEs and Asymptotics/Perturbation Methods, most notably), as well as a willingness to make program and administrative changes where appropriate. Although I contributed little to it, our department has had an enviable record of introducing new undergraduate majors that are of interest to students, and I hope that program adjustments happen as math and its rapid development continue. I thoroughly enjoyed the many undergraduates that I helped supervise in research projects related to these majors — their enthusiasm and talent were amazing. 

I had the privilege to direct the graduate program twice. I found our students to be thoughtful, serious about succeeding and, very often, fun.  I greatly benefited from the graduate students who worked with me on their Ph.D. theses. Working to develop these young researchers was a highlight of being in my academic position. The vast majority went on to academic jobs and have been quite successful. Others preferred industry and have enjoyed great success. A few students did M.S. work with me as well, and they have uniformly made a positive mark out there in the world. I get a great deal of satisfaction from having worked with all of these students. My students have taught me many things, including this: It’s not about doing research my way, it’s about finding what works for the student.

Collaborations

Some mathematicians are more “outward-looking” than others, in that they are enthusiastic about collaborating with non-mathematicians. I’m definitely in that subset, and our department shares this trait to a significant degree. This is demonstrated by continuing to host regular Mathematical Problems in Industry workshops that I helped organize for a few years. In those workshops and in research, with the support of the department, I worked with industrial chemists and physicists; government mathematicians and materials scientists; engineers in academia and industry; and optometry faculty and their students. The latter ended up being the most long-lasting and productive of these collaborations. I feel that in all this joint work, each team added up to more than the sum of its parts. Among others within the department, I benefited greatly from a longtime collaboration with Toby Driscoll; he made me better than I would have been on my own. 

M.S. in Data Science Program

Late in my tenure, there was considerable interest in data science. After university-wide study groups and meetings (in part organized by math faculty), I worked with many faculty inside and outside the department to help form the interdisciplinary M.S. in Data Science program. This was a case of good timing, and the program was approved and started rapidly. It was one of the first programs to be housed in the Graduate College. After the unofficial opening in 2018 (officially opened in fall 2019), the program has well over 100 graduates. It’s difficult to communicate how gratifying it is to cross this milestone. Significant financial support from then-CAS Dean John Pelesko and “release time” from then-Chair Lou Rossi were essential to the launch and later success of the program. I hope that UD continues to support this program and the important contribution of our department in its founding and growth.

Tennis great Arthur Ashe is quoted as saying: “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” I’m grateful for UD allowing me to make a living at something for which I have great passion, and I’m happy to have a had a chance to help colleagues and students here.

— Richard J. Braun, Carl J. Rees Chair of Mathematical Sciences Emeritus, University of Delaware