Donald McClure Named AMS Executive Director

January 5, 2009

Providence, RI:

Photograph by John Abromowski, Brown University

Professor Donald E. McClure of Brown University has been named Executive Director of the American Mathematical Society. The appointment was approved yesterday by the AMS Council, the policymaking body of the Society. McClure succeeds Dr. John H. Ewing, who has held the post for the past 13 years and who is now president of Math for America, a program that aims to attract mathematically talented young people to teach in the nation's schools. "Don has served the Society for much of the past 13 years, first as an elected member of the Board of Trustees and then as Associate Treasurer," Ewing commented. "He knows the AMS extremely well. I can't imagine any circumstances that would better guarantee a smooth transition from one Executive Director to the next. He is superbly qualified to lead the Society in the coming years. I am both grateful and proud that someone of Don's caliber wants to take on the job." "Don is well known and highly regarded by the AMS community," said AMS President James Glimm, Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Stony Brook University. "Because of his extensive knowledge of AMS affairs, we expect the transition to be smooth. Looking beyond an immediate transition period, Don brings to the AMS a level of experience with the broader world of science, technology, and business that will help our organization. His excellent judgement and taste will serve him (and us) well in this new position."

The AMS Executive Director is the principal executive officer of the Society, responsible for its large, complex, and diverse spectrum of people, publications, and budgets. McClure will oversee the organization's operations carried out by 210 staff members in Providence, RI, Ann Arbor, MI, and Washington, DC to ensure that the Society maintains its strong position as major publisher of mathematical books and journals, including Mathematical Reviews; organizer of numerous meetings and conferences each year; and leading provider of professional services and electronic information in the mathematical sciences.

McClure's background and experience make him an ideal candidate for the Executive Director position. He has a deep commitment to service on behalf of the mathematics community---a commitment that has led him to play a variety of roles in Society leadership, from hands-on tasks for the Data Committee (which produces the Annual Survey of Mathematical Sciences) and the Board of Trustees, to high-level work on policy committees. He has an impressive research background as well as experience in academic administration, including helping to run a distributed mathematics institute for more than a decade. He also has developed considerable business savvy, having founded and run a consulting business with a colleague at Brown University.

McClure was elected to the AMS Board of Trustees in 1995 and served on the board until 2000. His service included stints as chair of the board and as liaison to the AMS Publications Division. From 2003 until his appointment as Executive Director, McClure was AMS Associate Treasurer. Through serving on the board and in the treasurer position, has come to understand many of the practical aspects of running the AMS and has a sense of the scope of its programs and publishing business.

McClure received his bachelor's degree in 1966 from the University of California, Berkeley, and his PhD in applied mathematics in 1970 from Brown University. He has spent his entire career at Brown, starting as an instructor in 1969 and rising to the rank of professor in 1982. He has advised 15 PhD students. McClure's research concerns the formulation of probabilistic models for images and the design of algorithms based on those models and classical statistical principles. The research is motivated by the areas of image processing and computer vision, ill-posed inverse problems, and analysis of image sequences such as those occurring in film or progressive video. In the area of ill-posed inverse problems, McClure and his Brown colleague Stuart Geman were the first to propose and analyze Bayesian methods for computed tomography. There is now a vast literature in this area.

In 1986, McClure was part of a group that applied for and received a major grant through the University Research Initiative of the Department of Defense to launch a distributed mathematics institute, the Center for Intelligent Control Systems. The center ran for 15 years and involved 25 to 30 faculty members at Brown, Harvard University, and the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, as well as many graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. As associate director of the center, McClure ran the center's node at Brown, which was concerned primarily with computational vision and control theory. The center received three grants from the DoD and was phased out when the last one ended in 2001.

In 1993, a consulting company co-founded by McClure and Geman, Mathematical Technologies, Inc., received a grant through the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to automate methods to restore digital film and video. This is the main focus today of the company, which has about 20 employees and offices in Providence and Hollywood.

With his research accomplishments, experience in both business and academic administration, and extensive knowledge of issues facing the mathematics profession, McClure brings a wealth of assets to the Executive Director position. "I am really excited about the new position," he remarked. "My responsibilities and efforts will be guided by the Society's mission to further mathematics research and scholarship. The AMS has a very positive impact on mathematics worldwide. I look forward to working with the staff and leadership to continue and expand the AMS contributions."

Contact:

Public Awareness Office
American Mathematical Society
201 Charles St.
Providence, RI 02904
Email: paoffice at ams dot org
Phone: 401-455-4000
Fax: 401-331-3842

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.