Prominent mathematician and teacher Dr. Keith Taylor of the University of Saskatchewan spent the month of March at StFX as this year’s James Chair Professor in Mathematics. The James Chair is reserved for a distinguished visiting professor from another university.

This has really been a pleasure, coming here for this month, Dr. Taylor says. I’m extremely relaxed in Antigonish. This has given me a chance to collect my thoughts about my research which, because of what I’ve been doing this last year, I haven’t had time to think long and hard about. But also, working with the people in the math and physics departments here, it’s been a pure pleasure.

Dr. Taylor, originally from Lochaber, Antigonish County, is acting Dean of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan, which required him to spend two hours a day dealing with e-mail alone while at X. He’s kept close ties with StFX since earning his B.Sc. in Mathematics here in 1971. One of the biggest positive developments he’s noticed is a dramatic increase in research in the math department.

I’m definitely working on some of my own (research) interests, and it’s been great to have the time, he says, adding that he’s given two research seminars and caught up on writing. He also began discussions with some StFX faculty members about cooperating on research.

While at StFX he worked primarily on wavelet analysis, a theoretical method of analyzing signals which, for example, underlies ripping CDs and encoding MP3s. It’s really all pure mathematics behind it, he says. Dr. Taylor received his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1976, and has been a full professor at the University of Saskatchewan since 1987. His love of sharing the world of mathematics with others has earned a number of awards for his teaching, including the USSU Teaching Excellence Award (1996-97), and U. Sask’s Master Teacher Award (2001). In August, Dr. Taylor starts a new post as Dean of Science at Dalhousie University.