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AROUND THE QUADS
5 Minutes With … JOHN MORGAN
John Morgan, professor of mathematics and department chair, has
been teaching at Columbia since 1976. Morgan is from Houston and
earned his B.S. and Ph.D. at Rice University. CCT recently
caught up with him after class to find out more.
Q: Where do you live?
A: East 86th Street.
Q: What is your favorite place in the world?
A: Paris. I have an apartment there, though I haven’t been
there in a while.
Q: Do you have any pets?
A: Not unless you count my kids — a son who just graduated
from Stanford and a daughter in ninth grade.
Q: What is the last book you read?
A: The one with a Columbia connection is Alexander Hamilton.
I’m also reading Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became
Shakespeare.
Q: What is your favorite class to teach at CC?
A: I like to mix it up. “Complex Variables” is a good
one.
Q: What’s new in the math department?
A: We have been thinking about the major experience and reworking
parts of it. We’re developing a broader spectrum of courses
for those who are dedicated to study in the field and others for
students with a basic interest. We now have more space (the statistics
department moved out of Mathematics Hall) and that gave us room
to make an undergraduate majors lounge, to make them feel like they
belong here. Another idea is to enhance non-curricular math initiatives.
The Undergraduate Math Society now is more active, and last year,
our students ranked 11th out of about 300 in the Putnam [national
math] exam.
Q: What are your plans for alumni in your departmental initiatives?
A: We want to offer students good things when they’re here
that will involve them and bring them together. Then we want to
continue that connection with an alumni relations math group. Whether
it begins with a webpage or a newsletter and then expands to include
events, we want to keep [math major alumni] in touch with us.
Q: Where is your favorite place to have lunch near Columbia?
A: Le Monde.
Q: Coffee or tea?
A: Espresso.
Q: If you were not teaching at CC, what would you most likely
be doing?
A: Teaching somewhere else. Being a mathematician and teaching mathematics
suits me so well that nothing else is tempting.
Interview and photo:
Laura Butchy
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