Erich's Place

My name is
Erich Friedman. I am
an Associate Professor of
Mathematics and ex-Chair
of the Math and Computer
Science Department at Stetson
University, which is located
in DeLand, Florida.
My office is 214-2
Elizabeth Hall.

	I was born in 1965 in West Lafayette, Indiana. I grew up in Indianapolis and went to North Central High School. I got my bachelor's degree from Rose-Hulman in 1987, and my Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1991.

My advisor was
Rick Durrett, who
studies Interacting Particle
Systems. You can see my
Mathematical Family Tree. I am
currently interested in Game
Theory, Geometrical Packing,
Computational Complexity,
and Graph Theory. Here
is my Vita.

This year I
am on sabbatical,
writing a book for
Elementary Graph Theory.
Last Spring I taught 1 section of
Calculus II and 2 sections of
Math & Stat Modeling.
Here are some of the
other Courses I've
Taught.

I am a
Libertarian and
an Atheist. I consider
myself a Feminist, and I'm a
member of the ACLU. I have
memorized the first 50 digits
of Pi. I am an INTP and I
Juggle. I build card houses,
and I'm interested in my
Family Tree.

Besides teaching,
my main passion is
playing games, such as
Chess, Go, Backgammon,
Bridge, Poker, and Mah Jongg.
I co-wrote a computer game
called Goldpusher. I also
spend time trying to prove
various solitaire games
are NP-complete.

I own the largest
Puzzle Collection in
Florida. I have solved the
Rubik's cube in 50 seconds.
I also make Puzzles, many of
which have been Published in
Brain Games, World of Puzzles,
and Games magazines. I also
provide puzzles for the U.S.,
U.K., and World Puzzle
Championships.

Musically,
I like Pink Floyd,
the Beatles, Peter Gabriel,
Thomas Dolby, the Nylons,
the Talking Heads, and the
Indigo Girls. If you like
humorous music, try the
Capitol Steps, Tom Lehrer.
Uncle Bansai, and
the Bobs.

For humor,
my favorite comic
strips are Fox Trot, Zits,
Dilbert, and Doonesbury.
I used to love The Far Side and
Calvin and Hobbes. Other
funny sites include the Darwin
Awards, Movie-a-Minute,
Flying Spaghetti Monster,
Bozo Criminals,
and Resumania.

I also like
playing Tennis, going
to movies at the Enzian,
eating Thai Food, the art of
M. C. Escher, listening to the
News on NPR, buying stuff
from Ebay, reading Science
Fiction, making Ambigrams,
and Friendship Bracelets,
and of course surfing
the Web.