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4/26/04

MESOPOTAMIAN MATHEMATICS TOPIC OF 2005 PISKOR LECTURE

CANTON – St. Lawrence University Associate Professor of Mathmatics, Computer 
Science and Statistics Duncan J. Melville has been named the Frank P. Piskor 
Faculty Lecturer for 2005. Next spring, Melville will deliver a lecture on 
campus on the topic "Teaching and Learning Mathematics in Mesopotamia."
	Mesopotamian mathematics is one of Melville's research interests, 
and he maintains a Web site on the topic. He also covers the subject in his 
History of Mathematics course.
	He states, "Scribes in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) wrote on clay, which 
does not perish when discarded, and so much of their writing has been preserved 
for archaeologists to discover, including a number of mathematical texts. In 
recent years, there has been a tremendous development in understanding how 
mathematical knowledge was organized and transmitted – the ways in which 
students learned mathematics, the techniques used to approach different 
mathematical problems, and the kinds of pedagogies used by their teachers." 
Melville will research and discuss in next year's lecture the current 
understanding of these topics for roughly 3000 to 1500 BC.  
	The Piskor Faculty Lectureship was established in 1979 to encourage 
original and continued research among St. Lawrence faculty members, to recognize 
and honor distinguished scholarship and to afford the opportunity for faculty 
to share their learning with the academic community.
	A graduate of the University of London, Melville earned two master's 
degrees and the Ph.D. at Yale University. He joined the faculty at St. Lawrence 
in 1991, and has published widely in the field of mathematics history and 
philosophy.

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