Professor Kenneth C. Millett
Kenneth C. Millett is Professor of Mathematics at the University
of California, Santa Barbara.
His short 2014 CV and an abbreviated list of publications with links to selected papers can be found here.
He has served as the Chair of The Chancellor's Outreach Advisory Board (COAB), as the Regional
Director of
the National Science Foundation funded
California
Alliance for Minority Participation(1)and, as
Director
of UCSB's California
Mathematics and Science Teaching Program.(2).
Dr. Millett served as the appointed University of California delegate
to the national
Academic Assembly and was elected Chair of the Western Regional Council
of the College Board(4).
He has served as member of the American Mathematical Society's
Subcommittee
on Undergraduate Education(5) and as a member of the
Advisory
Board of the AMS-SIAM project, "Employment and the U.S. Mathematics
Doctorate:
Connections with Non-Academic Opportunities." He is a member of the Board of Governors and the Science Policy Committee of the Mathematical
Association of America. From 1983
through
1997 he was a member of the state wide Advisory Committee of the
California
Mathematics Project(6) and served as its Chair.
He
has been active in the work of the Mathematicians and Educational
Reform
Forum(7) and the South Coast Mathematics Partnership(8).
Dr. Millett was the founding President and Executive Director of the
California
Coalition for Mathematics and Science(9).
He is a
member
of the
Mathematical Association of America,
the American Mathematical Society,
the
American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
the European
Mathematical Society, the Societe
Mathematique
de France, the Association for Women in Mathematics, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in
Science and Sigma Xi.
In 1988 he received the Carl B.
Allendoerfer
eward and, in 1991, he received the Chauvenet Prize for an article on
knot
theory written with W. B. R. Lickorish. In 1998, he received the Award
for Distinguished Public Service from the American Mathematical
Society.
In 2000, he was elected a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. AAAS
President Mary Good congratulated him on this recognition at the
Fellows
Forum held at the 2001 annual meeting. In 2006, Dr. Millett
was given the "Giant in Science" award by the QEM/MSE Network for his
"outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics and to minority
participation in STEM disciplines." In 2012, he was elected a Fellow of the American
Mathematical Society.
He has had three Ph.D. students.
Henry Clay Fickle, Knots, Z-Homology Spheres and Contractible
4-Manifolds,
June 1981.
Jorge Alberto
Calvo
, Geometric Knot Theory, June 1998, is an Associate Professor
at Ave Maria University
in Naples, FL.
Teresita Ramirez-Rosas, Quadrisecants and Ropelength of Knots, June 2009
and was the Co-director for
Eleni Panagiotou, A study of the topological entanglement of polymers, June 2012 National Technical University of Athens, Greece (with Lambropoulou and Theodorou)
Personal Background
Born in Hustisford, Wisconsin on November 16, 1941, Ken Millett
grew up in Oconomowoc,
Wisconsin. He graduated from Oconomowoc High School in 1959. His parents, Clarence
and Isola Millett, still live there. His three sisters, Diane, Rita and
Roxanne currently live in Pasadena, CA, San Antonio, TX and, Boulder,
CO,
respectively. He has two children: Rebecca, living in Cape Elizabeth,
Maine
with her husband, Kevin Kobel, and their two children, Christopher
and Hannah, and David, a graduate of the University of California at
Santa Cruz. His wife, Janis Cox Millett, has previously worked for the
Office of the President of the University of California providing
assistance
to programs to increase access and success for all students, especially
women and students of color. She assisted the creation of the
California
Mathematics Project and, for two years, was on leave to the Achievement
Council, a privately funded program. In 2000, Janis received her Ed. D.
and served as the founding director of the California Center for
Effective
Schools in the Givertz Graduate School of Education at UCSB. Ken
and Janis live in Santa
Barbara, California and Grambois,
France.
Education Background
Ken Millett received his Bachelors
Degree
in Science from the Massachusetts
Institute
of Technology in 1963, received his Master of Science and Doctor of
Philosophy Degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1964
and 1967, respectively. Following lecturer appointments at UCLA and
MIT,
he joined the faculty of the University of California as Santa Barbara
in 1969. Since then he has been a visiting professor at the Institut
des
Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, Princeton University, Occidental College,
UCLA, MSRI, several French research institutes and universities, most
recently
the Universite de Provence in Marseilles, and at the LOMI, Saint
Petersburg.
He has published over 50 scientific papers and edited four research
volumes
concerned with aspects of geometric topology, knot theory and, their
applications
to mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry and, molecular
biology.
He has also written articles on mathematics education and educational
reform
as well as developing materials to increase public understanding and
support
for the renewal and reform of mathematics teaching and assessment.
Footnotes:
1 The
California
Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) is an alliance of the
eight
campuses of the University of California working in collaboration with
the California State University and the California Community Colleges
to
double the number of African American, Native American, Native Pacific
Island, and Chicano/Latino students receiving advanced degrees in the
mathematical
sciences, the life and physical sciences and engineering in California.
In recognition of its success, the Regents of the University of
California
provide additional funding for the CAMP effort.
2 The California
Mathematics and Science Teaching Program provided fellowships
to more than 200 students attending UCSB, Westmont College, Santa
Barbara
City College, Allan Hancock College, Ventura College and, Oxnard
College
in connection with their work in regional mathematics and science
classrooms.
The principal mission of the program is to encourage students of color
to explore mathematics and science teaching careers and, in the course
of their work, provide junior high and high school students with strong
role models who can encourage them to become mathematically and
scientifically
successful and to continue their studies at the college and university
level. This program is partially supported by the University of
California's
Community Teaching Fellowship Program and by the NSF funded California
Alliance for Minority Participation.
3 The Mathematics component Achievement Program
(MAP)
was created in 1988 to promote mathematical achievement among students
of color. MAP now supports over 100 students each quarter at all levels
of undergraduate study. MAP served as the model for programs in
statistics,
biological sciences, chemistry, geography, geology and physics that now
form the core of the CAMP effort at UCSB.
4 The goal of the
College Board is "Educational Excellence for All Students."
Established
in 1900, it is a national, nonprofit association of about 3,000
education
organizations committed to achieving this goal. There are three
national
assemblies: Guidance and Admission, Academic Affairs, and College
Scholarship
Service. Among the Board's better know services are the Advanced
Placement
Program and the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT. The principal thrusts of the Board are
programs directed to promoting access and success of students of color,
for example EQUITY 2000 and Pacesetter.
5 The American
Mathematical
Society (AMS), founded in 1880 to further mathematical research and
scholarship, has over 30,000 members. Its mission is to promote
mathematical
research, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and
appreciation
of mathematics and its connection to other disciplines and everyday
life.
The Committee on Undergraduate Education advises the Society on issues
concerning undergraduate mathematics programs. The Sloan Foundation has
funded a joint effort of the AMS and the Society for Industrial and
Applied
Mathematics to undertake analysis of employment of PhD's in mathematics
outside academia.
6 The California Mathematics Project funds
seventeen
sites in collaborative professional development programs devised to
improve
the quality of mathematics education in California and thereby develop
in all students at all grade levels throughout the state an enhanced
sense
of mathematical power.
7 The Mathematicians and Educational Reform Forum
in an alliance of teachers of mathematics and mathematics departments
interested
devoted to the improvement of mathematics education in the United
States.
Dr. Millett serves on the advisory committee to the Departmental
Network,
a confederation of 13 leading mathematics departments.
8 The "Partnership" engaged university, community
college, high school, junior high school and elementary school teachers
in work to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in the
South
Coast area (including Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties). With funding
from the University of California, the participating school districts,
and a grant for the California Eisenhower Grant program, one of the
principal
activities of the Partnership is a summer program that brings
university
and community college students, especially students of color,
interested
in mathematics teaching careers into an intensive two month summer
program.
During this program, participants receive training in the use of new
mathematics
curricula and teaching and assessment strategies, they work with
experienced
teacher partners in summer mathematics programs for underrepresented
students
and they complete and present a capstone project. The 1995 program
supported
more than 20 students.
9 The California Coalition for Mathematics and
Science
was an alliance of California's education, public policy, government,
professional,
and business leaders dedicated to a statewide collaborative initiative
seeking the systemic reform of mathematics education and the
mathematical
empowering of all citizens for success in an increasingly technological
world.