Thomas E. Gilsdorf

I was born and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. I have a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota, an M.S. in Mathematics:Computer Science from Mankato State University (now called Minnesota State University- Mankato), and a PhD in Mathematics from Washington State University. I spend about half of my time studying the mathematical area of locally convex spaces, and the other half studying cultural mathematics. My interest in locally convex spaces originated with my dissertation. My interest in cultural mathematics stems from when I was an undergraduate. The required courses I took included anthropology, linguistics, foreign language, and music of African Americans. Those courses fascinated me but did not seem to have a connection to the traditional mathematics courses (calculus, linear algebra, and so on), until I learned about the topic of ethnomathematics (an equivalent term for cultural mathematics). It's truly an interdisciplinary field!