October 25, 2012

Kammler to deliver Emeritus Faculty Lecture

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A look at proposed changes to the state’s pension system and its possible impact on retirees is the focus of a presentation next week at SIU Carbondale.

David W. Kammler, emeritus professor and distinguished teacher in the Department of Mathematics will present the 2012 Emeritus Faculty Lecture at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30, in the SIU School of Law Hiram H. Lesar Building, room 102.

Kammler will discuss "SURS, Exponentials and All That." The event is free, and the public is welcome to attend.

The discussion will focus on elementary mathematical ideas that underlie stable retirement systems, and help people attending understand implications of some of the proposed changes to the State University Retirement Systems (SURS).

Kammler taught at SIU Carbondale from 1971 to 2008, earning a dozen federal grants to support his teaching and research in mathematics. He earned the 1995 Outstanding Teaching Award at the University, and an award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics by the Illinois Section of the Mathematical Association of America in 2001. Prior to coming to SIU Carbondale, Kammler worked for Texas Instruments from 1964 to 1968, and also held a National Science Foundation Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Kammler is a three-degree graduate of SIU Carbondale, earnings bachelor's degrees in chemistry and physics, both in 1962, and a master's degree in math in 1964. He also earned a master's degree in physics from Southern Methodist University in 1969, and a doctoral degree in math from Michigan in 1971.