Local businessman gives $1 million to Pitt Andy Medici, News Editor

A local business… Local businessman gives $1 million to Pitt Andy Medici, News Editor

A local business owner has given Pitt one million reasons to endow a new visiting professorship.

William Benter, the chair and international CEO of Acusis, donated $1 million to Pitt’s University Center for International Studies to create a visiting professorship in contemporary international issues.

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said that gifts such as this one help prepare Pitt students to assume leadership roles in an ever-changing world.

“The University of Pittsburgh has long been committed to scholarship in international studies and to an even more fundamental mission – preparing today’s students to become tomorrow’s world leaders,” Nordenberg said in a press release.

“Generous gifts like this one from William Benter will support additional scholarship and teaching in contemporary international issues and will help prepare Pitt students to assume leadership roles in an ever-changing world.”

Albert Novak, vice chancellor for Pitt’s Office of Institutional Advancement said in a press release that this new professorship will help expose broader communities to a larger range of questions and potential answers about pressing world concerns.

“In an increasingly globalized society, it is essential to explore varied perspectives on critical international issues,” he said.

Pitt professor solves 400-year problem Cara Steiner, Staff Writer

Pitt Professor Thomas C. Hales figured out the answer to a question that has taken almost 400 years to solve.

The Kepler conjecture, developed by the mathematician Johannes Kepler in 1611, insists that spheres are most efficiently packed into a pyramidal shape, commonly seen in cannonball packing. He was unable to prove his proposal.

“The problem sounds very easy, you’re just trying to find the best way to stack oranges,” Hales said.

Hales offered a 300-page proof in 1998 that was sent to “referees” to make sure there were no technical errors. An abridged version was published in the journal “Annals of Mathematics” in 2005 and the full version appeared in the July 2006 edition.

This past weekend, Hales received the David P. Robbins award from the American Mathematics Society, which held its Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans. He shares the award with Samuel P. Ferguson, who worked with him on the proof.

Hales is now involved in working on a computer-based mathematical system called the Flyspeck Project, which, according to Hales, is essentially “trying to get a computer to do what mathematicians usually do with a paper and pencil.” He is using his proof as a starting point, and the system may take 20 years to develop.

Hales parallels the mathematics of sphere packing to the process of error-cracking codes.

“With oranges, you’re trying to pack as many as you can without damaging them,” he said. “With a CD, you’re trying to pack as much data as possible without damaging the data.”

The explanation Hales gave on why it has taken so long to prove Kepler’s idea rests mainly in the numerous possibilities.

“There are thousands of other arrangements that had to be considered,” he said.

The David P. Robbins Award was established in 2005, and Hales and Ferguson are its first recipients.