Ellis D. Cooper

While studying at Stuyvesant High School I was employed part-time as an assistant engineer and mentored by Edmund C. Berkeley, a founder of the Association for Computing Machinery. After graduation in 1959 I studied physics at the Columbia University School of Engineering, then changed to major in mathematics. For years I combined college courses and full-time employment as an Engineering Assistant at the Columbia University Electronic Research Laboratories. During 1968-9 I was a member of the Eagle Mathematics group started by my revered mentor, Ralph Abraham. The Eagles published a series of textbooks conforming to the guidelines of the Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM). I illustrated "Calculus of Elementary Functions, Volume 1AB" by Hal Abelson, Leonard Fellman, and Lee Rudolph.

Mentored by Barry Mitchell, I was awarded a doctorate in mathematics at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, for research in category theory in 1973. My thesis title is "Groupoids and Preorders." During 1973-1975 I was an Adjunct Lecturer in Mathematics at Lehman College of the City University of New York, and published papers on algebraic topology, and combinatorics.

My interest in microcomputers and poly-rhythmic electronic music led to employment as an electronic music engineer at ElectroHarmonix in New York City, to creation of one product (the "Clone Theory" guitar effects box), two patents, and to three publications. In 1979 I was an assembly language programmer for the Loral Corporation defense contractor.

In the 1980s I was employed by Henry Jarecki at Mocatta Metals Corporation on Wall Street for years as a mathematician, computer programmer, and as a computer engineer, designing and building hand-held portable trading computers for Thomas Peterffy.

In the 1990s I was employed at The Rockefeller University as a computer engineer. There I created the Timing Machines graphical simulation language. In 1996 I commenced a longer-term contract at Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates in Gloucester, MA as Senior Software Engineer specializing in assembly language, FORTH, and LabVIEW code. I developed the hardware and software for a data acquisition product, the Statistical Quality Monitor for the E220 Medium-Current Ion Implanter. That contract evolved into full-time employment until 2001. Subsequently I resumed as a self-employed computer engineering consultant.

In 2004-2007 I taught algebra, geometry, and advanced technical design at Rockport High School. There I created the T Rig video camera support and projection software product. During 2007-2009 I was employed part-time by Benoit Mandelbrot, "the father of Fractal Geometry," to assist in the preparation of his memoirs for publication. In 2009 I started my book "Mathematical Mechanics: From Particle to Muscle," which was published by World Scientific in 2011.

From 2011 to 2015 I have been teaching mathematics, statistics, and computer science as an Adjunct Instructor here and there from time to time, at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Boston, Bunker Hill Community College, North Shore Community College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and at Endicott College.

My second book, "Microlects of Mental Models" is published under my nom d'editeur, Cognocity Press, 2015.