mathematics

Ronald DeVore

Ronald DeVore is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ronald DeVore rather than just read about it. In short: Ronald Alvin DeVore (born May 14, 1941) is an American mathematician and academic. He is the Walter E.

Key takeaways

Ronald DeVore belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ronald DeVore to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ronald DeVore from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ronald Alvin DeVore (born May 14, 1941) is an American mathematician and academic. He is the Walter E. Koss Professor and a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Texas A&M University. DeVore is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Academic biography DeVore received a B.S. from Eastern Michigan University in 1964 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Ohio State University in 1967 under the supervision of Ranko Bojanic. From 1968 to 1977 he was at Oakland University. In 1977 he became a professor at the University of South Carolina, where he served as the Robert L. Sumwalt Professor of Mathematics from 1986 to 2005. From 1999 to 2005 he also served as the director of the Industrial Mathematics Institutes, which he founded. In 2005 he retired from the University of South Carolina. Since 2008 he has been the Walter E. Koss Professor at Texas A&M University and will be named Distinguished Professor in Fall 2010. DeVore has been a visiting professor at a number of universities around the world, including: Ohio State University (1967–1968), the University of Alberta (1971–1972), University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (1975–1976), University of Bonn (1977, 1978, 1979), Texas A&M University (1983), Scuola Normale di Pisa (1984), the University of Wisconsin (1983–1984, 1985, 1991), Purdue University (1990), the University of Paris VI (1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005), Princeton University (1997–1998), RWTH Aachen University (2002), the University of Maryland (2004–2005), Rice University (2005–2006), the Courant Institute at New York University (2006–2007), and the Fondation Sciences Mathématiques de Paris (2009–2010).

Research DeVore has been active in the development of many areas of applied mathematics such as numerical analysis of partial differential equations, machine learning algorithms, approximation of functions, wavelet transforms, and statistics. He has also made significant contributions to the theory of compressive sensing.

Awards and honors DeVore has received numerous awards, including an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship from 1975 to 1976, the Journal of Complexity Outstanding Paper Award in 2000, the Bulgarian Gold Medal of Science in 2001, the Humboldt Prize in 2002, the ICS Hot Paper Award in 2003, an honorary doctorate from RWTH Aachen University in 2004, and the SPIE Wavelet Pioneer Award in 2007. He was also a plenary lecturer at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2006. In 2001 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2007 he became a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. From 2000 to 2002 he was the Chair of the Society for the Foundations of Computational Mathematics In 2017 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was named a SIAM Fellow in 2018.

References

External links DeVore's web page at Texas A&M.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ronald DeVore

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ronald DeVore claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ronald DeVore before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ronald DeVore ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ronald DeVore

In research: Ronald DeVore appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ronald DeVore in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ronald DeVore is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 20th-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ronald DeVore outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ronald DeVore in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ronald DeVore means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ronald DeVore out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ronald DeVore in simple terms?

Ronald Alvin DeVore (born May 14, 1941) is an American mathematician and academic. He is the Walter E.

Why does Ronald DeVore matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ronald DeVore?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ronald DeVore.