David Austin is Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University. After earning bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physics, as well as a master's in mathematics, from Rice University, he completed his PhD in mathematics at the University of Utah.

Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study, Professor Austin served on the mathematics faculty at the University of British Columbia for nine years before coming to GVSU in 1999. His main research areas lie in discrete mathematics, geometry, and topology. An avid computer programmer, Professor Austin is interested in how current technology may be used to communicate mathematical ideas in novel and effective ways, particularly visually. He has co-organized and led two summer graduate programs in mathematical graphics sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. He is also a contributing co-editor of the American Mathematical Society's online Feature Column, a monthly column that describes current mathematics for the general public.

In 1996 he was awarded the Faculty of Science Teaching Award at UBC; in 2004, he received the GVSU Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center's Teaching with Technology Award.

Matt Boelkins is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University. He received his bachelor's degree from Geneva College, master's degree from Western Washington University, and PhD from Syracuse University, all in mathematics. Since finishing his PhD in 1998, he has been a faculty member at GVSU.

His scholarly interests lie in analysis and numerical analysis, and he regularly mentors undergraduate students in research projects in this area. Throughout his career, teaching has been his greatest passion. He has written several articles on the teaching of mathematics and has given many presentations on innovative teaching strategies and curriculum development. In addition, Professor Boelkins regularly speaks in undergraduate mathematics colloquia at area colleges and universities and has often visited area high schools to give talks about mathematics through the Michigan MAA's Visiting High School Lecturer Program.

In 2003 was awarded the GVSU Division of Science and Mathematics Pew Teaching Excellence Award; he also won two teaching excellence awards while a graduate student at Syracuse University.

Bob Devaney is Professor of Mathematics at Boston University. He received his undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross in 1969 and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1973 under the direction of Fields Medalist Stephen Smale. He taught at Northwestern University and Tufts University before coming to Boston University in 1980.

His main area of research is dynamical systems, primarily complex analytic dynamics, but also including more general ideas about chaotic dynamical systems. Lately, he has become intrigued with the incredibly rich topological aspects of dynamics, including such things as indecomposable continua, Sierpinski curves, and Cantor bouquets.

Professor Devaney is the author of over one hundred research and pedagogical papers in the field of dynamical systems. He is also the (co)-author or editor of thirteen books in this area of mathematics. In addition, Professor Devaney has delivered over 1,300 invited lectures on dynamical systems and related topics in all 50 states in the US and in over 30 countries on six continents worldwide.

Professor Devaney has received multiple awards for teaching excellence, including the 1994 Award for Distinguished University Teaching from the Northeastern section of the Mathematical Association of America; the 1995 Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished University Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America; the 1996 Boston University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award; and the 2002 National Science Foundation Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

Claire Ferguson is an artist and author. She earned her bachelor's degrees from Smith College in studio art, having studied intaglio and four-color printing, and English literature. Her 11-color print, Fourth of July, the product of one hundred hours of carving and painting, has earned her national recognition. In addition, she has written the Gold Ink and Ozzie Award-winning book, Helaman Ferguson: Mathematics in Stone and Bronze, published by Meridian Creative Group, Erie, Pennsylvania, 1994.

Helaman Ferguson is a sculptor and mathematician. He earned his A.B. in Liberal Arts from Hamilton College and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Washington.

Dr. Ferguson's primary sculpting media are stone and bronze, but he works with modern tools of computers, virtual image projection from equations, tool position and orientation monitoring, air hammers and drills, carbide cutters, diamond corers and saws, diamond chains, cables, pulleys, hydraulic rams, and gantry cranes. He has presented solo exhibitions around the country at institutions including Arizona State University, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Ohio State University. He is a regular speaker at colleges and universities as well.