Dr. Adrian Rice

Associate Professor of Mathematics
Randolph-Macon College
Ashland, Virginia
Phone: (804) 752-7230
Fax: (804) 752-4724
Email: arice4@rmc.edu
Adrian Rice received his Ph.D. from Middlesex University,
London, in 1997. He also holds masters and bachelors degrees from King's College
London, and University College London, respectively. He came to Randolph-Macon
in September 1999 after having served as a visiting professor at the University
of Virginia from 1998-1999, and a lecturer at Middlesex University from 1995
to 1998.
Teaching
Research
History of Mathematics.
In particular: 19th- and early 20th-century British algebra, analysis
and logic; the history of elliptic functions; and the work of Augustus
De Morgan (1806-1871).
Publications include:
- “In Search of the ‘Birthday’ of Elliptic Functions”, The Mathematical Intelligencer 30 (No.2) (2008), 48-56.
- “ ‘Shutting up like a telescope’: Lewis Carroll’s ‘Curious’ Condensation Method for Evaluating
Determinants” (with Eve Torrence), College Mathematics Journal 38 (2007), 85-95.

The Book of Presidents 1865–1965
(with Susan Oakes and Alan Pears)
London: London Mathematical Society, 2005.
- “De Morgan in the prehistory of statistical hypothesis testing” (with Eugene Seneta),
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series A) 168 (2005), 615-627.
- “ ‘Everybody makes errors’: The intersection of De Morgan's logic and
probability, 1837-1847”,
History and Philosophy of Logic 24 (2003), 289-305.
- “The rise of British analysis in the early 20th century: the role
of G. H. Hardy and the London
Mathematical Society” (with Robin J. Wilson), Historia Mathematica
30 (2003), 173-194.

Mathematics Unbound: The Evolution of an International
Mathematical Research Community, 1800-1945
(with Karen Hunger Parshall)
Providence: American Mathematical Society, and
London: London Mathematical Society, 2002.
- “A Gradual Innovation: The Introduction of Cauchian Calculus into mid-nineteenth-century
Britain”,
Proceedings of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy
of Mathematics 13 (2001), 48-63.
- “Inexplicable? The status of complex numbers in Britain, 1750-1850”,
in
Around Caspar Wessel and the Geometric Representation of Complex Numbers,
Ed. Jesper Lützen. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters,
2001, pp.147-180.
- “Extending Euler: a little-known episode in the prehistory of quaternions”,
Proceedings of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy
of Mathematics 12 (2000), 143-163.
- “What makes a great mathematics teacher? The case of Augustus De Morgan”,
The American Mathematical Monthly 106 (1999), 534-552.
- “From National to International Society: the London Mathematical Society
1867-1900”
(with Robin J. Wilson), Historia Mathematica 25 (1998),
185-217.
- “Inspiration or Desperation?
Augustus De Morgan's appointment to the Chair of Mathematics at London
University in 1828”,
British Journal for the History of Science 30 (1997), 257-274.
- “Mathematics in the Metropolis: a survey of Victorian London”, Historia
Mathematica 23 (1996), 376-417.
- “Augustus De Morgan : Historian of Science”, History of Science
34 (1996), 201-240.
- “From Student Club to National Society : The Founding of the London
Mathematical Society in 1865”
(with Robin J. Wilson & J. Helen Gardner), Historia Mathematica
22 (1995), 402-421.
To
the Department of Mathematics home page
Maintained by Adrian Rice
Last Modified: 4 February 2010