Richard Beals, a Yale alumnus and longtime faculty member, has been appointed the James E. English Professor of Mathematics by vote of the Yale Corporation.
Beals' research is in the areas of differential operators, ordinary and partial differential equations, real and complex function theory, inverse scattering theory, functional and global analysis, transport theory, mathematical economics and foundations of measurement.
A 1960 graduate of Yale College, Beals earned his Ph.D. from Yale in 1964 and was an instructor and assistant professor at the University before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1966. He returned to Yale as a professor in 1977; served as director of undergraduate studies in mathematics 1980-82; and chaired the department 1982-85.
In 1989, the mathematician was selected by undergraduates to receive the Yale College Dylan Hixon '88 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences. Beals was cited for his "gift" for presenting "abstract analysis as something eminently logical and natural, and seemingly effortless in the learning." In addition, students praised him for his weekly meetings outside of class to guide undergraduates as they attempted to solve complicated mathematical problems.
Beals is the author or coauthor of four books and is a former editor of "Communications in Partial Differential Equations." He also was the managing editor of the journal Contemporary Mathematics and served on the editorial boards of other mathematical publications. He was a member of the board of consultants to the U.S. Military Academy's mathematics department, and served on selection committees for the American Mathematical Society's Steele Prize, the Sloan Dissertation Year Fellowships and the National Science Foundation's Graduate Fellowships. At Yale, he has served on the Course of Study and Teaching and Learning committees, among others.
Beals has been a visiting professor at Yale (1968-69), Duke University and the University of Paris (Orsay).
Ronald R. Coifman, a mathematician who is noted for his work in data compression and restoration, has been named the Phillips Professor of Mathematics by vote of the Yale Corporation.
Coifman, a professor in both the mathematics and computer science departments, has conducted pioneering research on wavelet packets, a mathematical shorthand for compressing and restoring images and sounds. Coifman holds a joint patent with Yale for the discovery of wavelet packets, which can be used to restore blurred images or poor-quality sounds by detecting and enhancing the underlying coherent structure.
Coifman's wavelet packets have been used by the FBI and Scotland Yard to compress massive fingerprint files to a more manageable size for transmission over telephone lines. The new technology can also be used to convert long-playing record collections to compact discs, restore old photographs, produce clearer mammograms and ultrasound images during pregnancy, make oil exploration more efficient through the use of seismic waves, and more rapidly transmit picture-phone images.
Coifman's other research interests include nonlinear analysis, scattering theory, real and complex analysis and singular integrals. He has coauthored three books and has authored or coauthored more than 100 articles or papers.
A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, Coifman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1965. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1980, he taught at the University of Chicago and Washington University. He chaired Yale's math department 1986-89. He has been a visiting professor at Tel-Aviv University and the University of Chicago.
In May, Coifman was one of three faculty members at Yale who were
elected as fellows of the National Academy of Sciences. His other honors
include a 1996 State of Connecticut Medal of Science, which Governor John
G. Rowland presented to Coifman for his contributions to the state's
scientific development.
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