Nico Spronk

Associate Professor

Department of Pure Mathematics

University of Waterloo

Office: MC 5078

Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 35559

E-mail: nspronk at uwaterloo dot ca

Fax: 519-725-0160

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Teaching -- Fall 2011

Math 237 -- Calculus                      PMath 822 -- Quantum groups

Teaching -- Winter 2012

PMath 450/650 -- Lebesgue Integration and Fourier Analysis

Research

Research Papers                      Analysis Seminar                      Colloquia

Banach algebras 2011


Mathematics Genealogy Project. Mathematically, I'm apparently a descendant of Gauss, Euler, Fourier and Hilbert.

Present students
PhD
Laura Marti Perez, Fourier algebras of groupoids
Elcim Elgun, Compactifications of groups

Present postdocs
Pekka Salmi, Locally compact quantum groups
Yin-Hei (Michael) Cheng, Abstract harmonic analysis

Previous students
PhD
Mahya Ghandehari, 2010/08, Harmonic analysis of Rachmann algebras, AARMS post-doc with Keith Taylor, Dalhousie University
MMath
Aaron Tikuisis, 2007/08, Amenability for the Fourier algebra, PhD with G. Elliot, University of Toronto
Micheal Brannan, 2008/08, Operator spaces and ideals in Fourier algebras, PhD with J. Mingo and R. Spiecher, Queen's University
Cameron Zwarich, 2008/08, von Neumann algebras for abstract harmonic analysis, Apple Computer, Cuppertino


Previous Post-docs
Ebrahim Samei, 2007/01-2008/12, Amenability properties of Banach algebras of harmonic analysis
Hun Hee Lee, 2007/09-2009/04, Operator spaces and Banach algebras of harmonic analysis

Personal

-I am married to Stephenie Koerne. A picture of us together.

-I really like trains and will rubber-neck every time I hear a Nathan Air Chime or an EMD two-stroke motor.
-I like to read magazines, especially The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's.
-I'm very fond of Film Noir, Westerns and movies by the Coen Brothers. To look up information on movies visit the Internet Movie Database.
-I'm a pretty bad speller and thus must frequently make use of Merriam Webster. Although for less Americanized spelling, I often prefer the Oxford English Dictionary.
-I ride my bicycle frequently. I am a member of the Waterloo County Wanderers. I was a member of Brazos Valley Cyclists when I lived in Texas.
-I have an unusual fascination with weather. See the local weather in Waterloo, and compare it to Edmonton or College Station, TX. Also see weather radar Environment Canada -- Exeter, NOAA -- Great Lakes [note: EDT=UTC-4, EST=UTC-5].
-I also am unusually fascinated by geography. See MapQuest for some maps and driving directions. There are excellent relief maps of the United States through here. I couldn't find such nice maps of Canadian Provinces. However, there are many interesting tables and plates available though Statistics Canada. I've also had some fun looking at information at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Trivia

Newton couldn't count?
"The popular idea of mathematics is that it is largely concerned with calculations," writes Karl Sabbagh in The Riemann Hypothesis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). "What many people don't realize -- and mathematicians at parties have given up correcting them -- is that mathematicians are often no better calculators, and sometimes worse, than the average non-mathematician. . . . Even the giants of mathematics suffer from this minor disability: 'Sir Isaac Newton,' said one observer, 'though so deep in algebra and fluxions, could not readily make up a common account; and, when he was Master of the Mint, used to get somebody else else to make up his accounts for him.' "
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
I am involved in an evil enterprise.
"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell."
-- St. Augustine