Rada Higgins McCreadie
Born:
place: Columbus, Ohio
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B.A. in Mathematics
from the Miami University (Florida) (1969). She earned her M.Sc.
() Ohio State University
Ph.D. (1974) Ohio
State University
thesis. A Category Incorporating Finite Galois Extensions and
Regular Covering Spaces; advisor:
Research Assistant,
Delft University (The Netherlands)
URL:
email: mccreadie@simplex.nl
another Rada Higgins McCreadie page
Rada Higgins received a good education in the Columbus public schools which thought so highly of her that she was allowed to participate in an NSF program to study mathematics at Ohio State in her 10, 11,and 12th grades. She did her undergraduate work at Sacramento State and Miami University while her mother taught at these institutions. After her Ph.D. from Ohio State University, her Ph.D. advisor at Ohio State called her one of the best students he ever had. She speaks on her professor. Her Research - Dr. Higgins has publications in Elemente der Mathematik, Canadian Mathematical Bulletin, and The Fibonacci Quarterly and is cited in The Encyclopedia of Mathematics, 1987.
Dr. Higgins says her favorite problem is one she solved some years ago, while not employed in my field: A proof of the generalized Pythagorean Equation on the basis of principles dating from the Egyptian papyri, dating from 1800 B.C. She is also an inventor of a parallel magnetic computer and a digital, sequential computer
For three years Dr. Higgins held an NSF Fellowship. From 1974 to 1976 she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Ohio State. After a year (76-77) at Howard University she and her husband went to Delft University in The Netherlands, where Dr. McCreadie was a Research Assistant.
Dr. Higgins remains in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Early in her career, Rada Higgins McCready showed promise as a Research Mathematician:
references: [communications with Dr. Higgins], [Mathematical Reviews].
I remember how Professor Ross used to pace back and forth, from left to right, then from right to left, and again from left to right, like a panther in captivity, when he lectured. He immediately established a wave-length with his audience that held one's attention as perfectly as the Pied Piper. He was chivalrous, charming and courteous when he addressed his students. His motto was: (which he drummed into us; taken from a statement by Gauss) "Think deeply of simple things!" As a teenager, this motto and admonition became my vow. And even long afterwards, at every bend, cross-road, U-turn of my life, I remembered that motto. The motto seemed to imply that there is nothing so simple and apparent in life or mathematics, that it couldn't benefit from a deeper scrutiny or analysis. It implied you shouldn't look too superficially at things, at ideas or even at people. After all, everyone (and every concept) is a "star," (to put it in the vernacular of pop musician, Sly Stone).
I always suspected it was a very deep mind that impressed on me the motto: Think deeply of simple things! The opportunity to study under Dr. Ross and to participate in his summer training program was probably the most singular privilege I have known in my academic life. It was an unforgettable experience, involving unforgettable people. Like novices preparing for a vocation, we ate, slept, talked math. We meditated on the elegance of an ingenious proof or novelty of an audacious conjecture. I soon learn to love this austere, rigorous and vigorous environment dedicated to uncovering the laws, and beauty, of pure reason.
Certainly, Dr. Ross shaped my destiny. Through him, I received an NSF Fellowship to follow the graduate program in mathematics at Ohio State University, from where I eventually acquired a doctorate. I was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Howard University after leaving OSU. Unfortunately, my mathematical career faltered, but my interest and love for mathematics and "thinking deeply" has never diminished. I have done quite an amount of scientific research, which is, as yet, unexposed and undeveloped. I have survived the last twenty years principally by operating a one-man business, single-handedly, overseas.
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