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Honoring Dad
Children of former mathematics professor honor their father with
an endowed chair
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William "Bill" Holl said it first. His brother and sister quickly
echoed his thoughts.
All three children of Dio L. Holl said their father would be a little
embarrassed with what they have done.
"He was never one for self promotion," Bill Holl said.
Holl's brother Bruce was quick to point out that the establishment of
the Dio L. Holl Chair in Applied Mathematics was important, not only to
Iowa State's Department of Mathematics, but to the family as well.
"It's important to us to have people remember him and what he did
at and for Iowa State," Bruce Holl said.
Dio L. Holl came to Iowa State as an assistant professor of mathematics
in 1925 and taught until his death in 1954. A professor of mathematics
and chair of the department for nine years, he was interested both in
mathematics and the teaching of mathematics.
Bill and Bruce Holl, along with their sister Beth Bierbaum, and Bruce's
wife, Sally, were on campus in mid-October to be recognized for the establishment
of the Holl Chair. Bierbaum said a pair of already established awards
in their father's honor got her to thinking about further recognizing
him.
"I was in Ames and just stopped by the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences to see about two awards (Dio L. Holl Awards given annually to
a junior and senior in mathematics)," she recalled. "I was very
impressed with what was happening on campus and in the college."
Bierbaum was invited and joined the LAS Dean's Council and started coming
back to campus twice a year.
During this time frame, she started conversations with the Department
of Mathematics. Later she brought her brothers into the conversation and
the three established the Holl Chair in Applied Mathematics, a particular
interest of their father's.
"Math is not the romantic side of a university," Bierbaum said.
"Other alumni would probably look at other departments that are much
more exciting to donate to. We're hopeful that we've helped foster an
interest in the mathematics at Iowa State."
That interest should be fostered through the first holder of the Holl
Chair. Hailiang Liu, assistant professor of mathematics, came to Iowa
State this fall from UCLA, where he was an assistant professor of computational
and applied mathematics.
Liu earned his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has worked
in industry in his native China. Previously he was an Alexander von Humboldt
Research assistant professor at the University of Magdeburg in Germany.
The Department of Mathematics is utilizing funds from the Holl Chair to
attract strong new faculty members to Iowa State. Liu will hold the position
for the next two years.
"One of the most difficult and important responsibilities we have
is of finding the highest quality new faculty," said Justin Peters,
professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics. "It is our
intention to make maximum use of the endowment by rotating the position
of Holl Chair every two years, so that two years from now we expect to
be using the endowment to bring in another distinguished young faculty
member.
"This will have a real impact in maintaining and enhancing the reputation
of our department."
The Dio L. Holl Chair in Applied Mathematics was made possible by a gift
given to the ISU Foundation.
Around LAS
November 18 to December 1, 2002
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