Math professor Guterman dies

After a nearly two-year battle with esophageal cancer, math professor Martin Guterman passed away last Sunday. Guterman was 62 years old, and he had been a member of the faculty since 1966.

Guterman specialized in algebra and group theory, and he created several of the math department's courses, including Math of Symmetry and Math of Social Choice.

He was "very highly regarded for his teaching by his students and his colleagues," Math Department Chair Christoph B?¶rgers said. B?¶rgers, who joined the department in 1994, said Guterman was "almost like part of a family for us."

Guterman was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus 21 months ago, but he continued to teach through to the fall 2003 semester. "They gave him 14 months to live but he beat the odds," math professor Richard Weiss said. "He was a special person."

When Weiss joined the faculty in 1980, he and Guterman worked on a project together with students on group theory. According to Weiss, Guterman was "a brilliant mathematician."

"It was a real pleasure to work with Marty," Weiss said.

Math Professor Zbigniew Nitecki, who joined the department in 1972, co-wrote with Guterman the textbook that was used for Math 38, which until two years ago had been the differential equations course for engineers. Nitecki and Guterman were looking for a way to incorporate more linear algebra into the differential equations course because linear algebra was not a prerequisite for engineers.

When they wrote the book in 1982, Nitecki said, "We wanted to do something very subversive." The goal was to "get the students to learn linear algebra by getting them to learn the application of that to differential equations."

Though Nitecki's background is in dynamical systems, as opposed to group theory, he said that he and Guterman "saw eye-to-eye on many things about education."

In addition to Math 38, Guterman designed and taught Math 8 (Math of Symmetry) and Math 9 (Math of Social Choice), both of which were more "untraditional" math classes. Guterman was "very creative in developing courses," B?¶rgers said.

"He loved those courses," Weiss said. "He was very proud of them."

Junior Stephanie Histed, who took Guterman's Math of Symmetry course in the 2002 spring semester, said Guterman was deeply concerned with students' progress. "Since the class wasn't geared toward math majors, he took a lot of time to make sure that we were comfortable," she said.

George Leger, who taught in the math department from 1962 until this past September and served as department chair for nine years before Weiss, recalled Guterman's warmth and generosity.

Guterman was "one of the best teachers the department has ever seen or probably ever will," Leger said. "Everybody liked him, it would be impossible not to."

As the chair of the faculty curriculum committee, Guterman served as the math department's liaison to the education department. He was also on the University tenure and promotion committee. He was the "wisest person in the department on issues of career development," Weiss said.

An e-mail Nitecki received from a fellow faculty member described Guterman as a man of "vitality, energy, enthusiasm, generosity, and quickness." Nitecki called Guterman "one of the institutional memories of this department."

Guterman is survived by his wife of 40 years, Sonia, and their daughters, Lila and Beth. Mrs. Guterman was a biologist before becoming a lawyer. She was also an accomplished flautist. Lila did graduate studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology before starting scientific writing. Beth recently graduated from Juilliard in viola performance. "Music runs in the family," Leger said.

Mr. Guterman, himself, had a deep appreciation for classical music. "I can't recall having seen anyone else who had that level of knowledge about classical music," B?¶rgers said.

Leger said that everyone "was just accustomed to [Guterman] being there."

"We've all been in shock," Nitecki said. "This will be hard on the department."