Michael La Croix

I have just finished spending a year as a lecturer in the department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo, after previously completing a PhD under the supervision of Professor David Jackson, in the Combinatorics and Optimization department. A recent CV can be found here.

Mathematical Illustration

In the process of producing my PhD thesis, I became experienced with writing high quality mathematical illustrations using the PostScript programming language. I am currently using the techniques I learned to illustrate the second edition of a linear algebra text book.

My recent interests include investigating the use of animation to enhance electronic presentations of mathematics. This will become increasingly important as we move towards paperless distribution of content. An early example using JavaScript to animate pdfs can be found here.

Typesetting Math

The standard medium for typesetting math is LaTeX. If you're interested in learning LaTeX, a good place to start is The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e. Further information on math specific issues, and on using AMS-LaTeX, can be found in the Short Math Guide For LaTeX.

As an example, here is the LaTeX Source source for the main file of my Master's essay on "Approaches to the Enumerative Theory of Meanders". The main file reveals all the macros I used, and shows the general structure of a LaTeX document. Here is the finished product for comparison.

My interests in typesetting extend to a professional level. I am the author of LaTeX classes to control page layout of user submissions to an online economics journal, Review of Economic Analysis,