UC Emeritus Taft Professor Honored by International Math Conference

University of Cincinnati Emeritus Taft Professor of Mathematics Kenneth Meyer has spent a lifetime researching ordinary differential equations and dynamical systems, research that has produced a “voluminous and celebrated opus of work,” according to the

International Centre for Mathematical Meetings

(CIEM) website. This year’s CIEM conference, titled, “Hamiltonian Dynamics and Celestial Mechanics: To honor Professor Kenneth Meyer in his 75th Year,” celebrated Meyer. The conference took place in Castro Urdiales, Spain, from May 30th through June 3rd.

“Hamiltonian systems, bifurcation theory and celestial mechanics all stem directly from Newton’s laws of motion. These lines of research remain as relevant to science today as they were at their beginnings in the early 17th century,” says Scott Dumas, a conference organizer and fellow UC math professor.

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Head Shuang Zhang says, “Looking back on the last three decades of the departmental history, we would clearly rank that Ken Meyer is the most outstanding faculty who has made the greatest contributions to the departmental missions.”

Meyer appreciates the accolades, saying, “It is a great honor to have my life’s work recognized by my colleagues and friends.”

Though Meyer retired from UC in 2003, he continues to do as much research as ever. He has authored or coauthored over 100 research publications and wrote the influential text “Introduction to Hamiltonian Dynamical Systems and the N-Body Problem” (now in its second edition, with coauthors G.R. Hall and D. Offin). He also served as editor of six mathematics journals (including two currently), and was continuously funded by national agencies—for individual and collaborative research projects, conferences and equipment—for more than three decades.