Mr. W. Conway Link
Mr. Link joined the LSUS faculty in 1970 after receiving an M.A. in
Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma that year. In 1973 he was
awarded an H.E.W. grant to pursue a Ph.D in Biostatistics and Epidemiology
at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center.
Since coming to LSUS, he developed and teaches all of the statistics-based
mathematics courses for the department, as well as a variety of other
undergaduate mathematics courses. In addition, he has done consulting,
much of it at no charge, in nursing, medicine, business and education, and
served as statistician for many students at the master's and Ph.D level.
Link has also been very active in mathematics reform. He organized and
coordinated each of the four LSUS Mini-Conferences on Mathematics Reform
(1995-1997), served as the principal instructor in two four-week summer
LaSIP
workshops for high school teachers (1995 and 1996), developed (1994) and
continues to teach the statistics and discrete math component for LaPREP,
initiated (1991) and continues to edit the College of Science newsletter,
The Northwest Louisiana Science News. He has presented and
conducted workshops at local, area, and state meetings for teachers of
mathematics. He is particularly concerned about the misuse and abuse of
statistics and misrepresentation of data by the media, politicians, and
advertising agencies, and continues to refine hi presentation on that
subject.
One of Link's continuing interests is in using practical
inter-disciplinary examples and applications from upper-level abstract
mathematics courses to stimulate interest in mathematics among students of
all ages so that they can see the connection between mathematics and the
real world. In 1986 he began introducing some of these applications in
Summer Solstice, a summer program for academically talented students,
grades 2-6, which he helped develop. His summer short course, Math in
Action, for students grades 6-9, consisted primarily of these applications
including encryption, bar coding, and use of mathematics in statistics and
sports.
