Dan Archdeacon, an intellectually engaging teacher, world-renowned scholar and highly respected colleague who joined the University of Vermont's Department of Mathematics in 1982, passed away this week. Archdeacon held a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer Science. Previously, he held an appointment at the University of Kansas. He received his doctorate from Ohio State University.
Archdeacon served the university in many leadership roles, including as director of the Mathematics Graduate Program and as a long time member and chair of the Professional Standards Committee of the Faculty Senate. Archdeacon was named a University Scholar for the academic year 2003-2004, was a Fulbright Teaching Fellow at the Riga’s Commerce School and held numerous visiting professorships at other universities, including the University of Auckland, Yokohama National University, Technical University of Denmark and the Open University.
A passionate and highly accomplished mathematician, Archdeacon’s research focus was on graph theory, combinatorics, theoretical computer science and topographical graph theory, for which he had particular interest. He published over 70 articles and was an invited speaker at mathematics conferences around the world, including this past January in Slovenia. He served as a reviewer and referee for more than 30 journals and served on the boards of the Journal of Combinatorial Theory B and the Journal of Graph Theory.
“Professor Archdeacon was a gifted mathematician and researcher whose work was applauded around the world, a skilled teacher admired by undergraduate and graduate students alike and a beloved colleague,” said UVM president Tom Sullivan. “We deeply appreciate his contributions to the life of our university over so many years and will greatly miss him.”
“Dan was an amazing guy who I had the great fortune of knowing for 40 years,” said Jeff Dinitz, a professor in mathematics who chaired the department for many years. “He was a world-class mathematician with many important theorems to his name. He was an invited lecturer at conferences and universities around the world and was the editor-in-chief of a major journal in his research area of graph theory. Dan loved UVM and was a great teacher who motivated his students and showed them the beauty and magic in mathematics. He was witty and just plain fun to be with. He deeply loved his role as a father and was an exceptional husband. He will be missed by his friends and colleagues here at UVM, as well as by the world-wide mathematics community.”
A campus memorial service will be held March 10 at 4 p.m. at Ira Allen Chapel.