Stephen Andrilli, Ph.D.

Dr. Stephen Andrilli has been a member of La Salle University’s Mathematics and Computer Science Department since 1980.  He graduated as a mathematics major and physics minor from La Salle, serving as President of La Salle’s Math Club in his senior year. He completed a master’s degree and a doctorate—the latter on finite group theory, on the uniqueness of the O’Nan simple sporadic group—at Rutgers University.  Dr. Andrilli taught full-time at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD for two years, 1978-1980, before returning to La Salle University to teach full-time in 1980.  Since 1996, he has supervised La Salle’s mathematics-education programs (undergraduate and graduate) each spring, and has now “shepherded” over 80 student-teachers /supervised-teachers during their student-teaching / supervised-teaching semester. He was awarded the Lindback Award in 1990 for distinguished teaching.

Dr. Andrilli has served recently as an At-Large member of the Eastern Pa. and Delaware chapter of the Mathematical Association of America, and coordinated the chapter’s fall meeting at La Salle University in 2010. He has served since 2009 as moderator of La Salle’s Pennsylvania Beta Chapter of Kappa Mu Epsilon, the mathematical honor society, and previously served as moderator for almost 15 years for La Salle’s Explorers for Life student group.

Dr. Andrilli has taught a wide variety of courses, mostly mathematics-related, but also, in the 1980s and1990s, some in computer science.  His favorite courses (and main interests) are History of Mathematics, Modern Geometries, Linear Algebra and Abstract Algebra.  His most unusual offering is an Honors Course based on Douglas Hofstadter’s classic “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid” in which he weaves together Gödel’s Undecidability Theorem, the art of M.C. Escher, the music of J.S. Bach, the “Alice” works by Lewis Carroll, and the pioneer computer work of Charles Babbage and Alan Turing.

Dr. Andrilli is the co-author along with Dr. David Hecker (St. Joseph’s University) of Elementary Linear Algebra, published by Elsevier/Academic Press, currently in its 4th edition.

Areas of Expertise

• Linear and Abstract Algebra
• History of Mathematics
• Secondary Mathematics-Education

Education

• Ph.D.  1979   Rutgers University (mathematics)
• M.S.    1975   Rutgers University (mathematics)
• B.A.    1973    La Salle University (math major, physics minor)

Teaching

MTH 101 Intermediate Algebra

MTH 113 Algebra and Trigonometry

MTH 114 Business Calculus

MTH 150 Mathematics: Myths and Realities (aka Liberal-Arts Math

MTH 120 Calculus and Analytic Geometry I

MTH 221 Calculus and Analytic Geometry II

MTH 222 Calculus and Analytic Geometry II

MTH 240 Linear Algebra

MTH 260 Discrete Mathematics

MTH 302 Foundations of Mathematics

MTH 330 Modern Geometries

MTH 341 Abstract Algebra

MTH 40 History of Mathematics

MTH 424 Complex Variables

HON 482 Eternal Golden Braid (based on Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach

EDC 470 Professional Semester in Education: The Practice and Profession of Teaching (Student-Teaching for Math-Education Undergraduate Students

EDC 680/689 Professional Semester in Education: Special Methods of Teaching & Student-Teaching (for Math-Education Graduate Students

EDC 680/668 Professional Semester in Education: Special Methods of Teaching & Supervised-Teaching (for Math-Education Graduate Students

Books

Elementary Linear Algebra (2010), co-authored with Dr. David Hecker of St. Joseph’s University, published by Elsevier / Academic Press, 4th edition, together with textbook supplements (Instructor’s Manual and Student Solutions Manual) and several web sections (on the textbook’s website) [Earlier editions published, respectively, in 1993, 1999, and 2003]

Chapter: “Gödel’s Undecideability Theorem” (p. 57-72) for Applications of Discrete Mathematics, edited by John Michaels & Kenneth Rosen, published by McGraw-Hill, 1991

Selected Presentations

“Some Strategies for Teaching a Course Based on Douglas Hofstadter’s ‘Gödel, Escher, Bach’”, presented at the Joint AMS/MAA Math Meeting in Boston, MA on January 6, 2012

“The Vanishing Square, the Fibonacci Sequence, and the Golden Ratio” for an Explorer Café at La Salle University, on February 9, 2011

“Education as a Career” for Careers Day, at Archbishop Wood High School, on May 18, 2010 (spoke to 3 groups of sophomores, approximately 40 students each)

“More on M.C. Escher” for the La Salle University (monthly) Symposium of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, March 2006

“The Vortex Where All Levels Cross: Gödel, Escher, and Bach”, invited address at Montgomery County Community College, PA, April, 1998

Affiliations

Mathematical Association of America (MAA)

SIGMAA-HOM (special interest group of MAA on History of Mathematics)

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

University Faculty for Life