1989
CITATION
Mr Chancellor,
Ralph Gordon Stanton is often referred to as Canada's mathematical ambassador to Australia. For the last fifteen years, he has made frequent visits to this country, participating in conferences and informal discussions on mathematics at all levels, arranging scholarly exchanges of staff and graduate students between Australia and Canada,. and collaborating with Australian mathematicians. The Australian Mathematics Competition, which now involves one in every three eligible high school students in the country, was originally-based on competitions he introduced in Canada, and developed (with his help) into the largest such competition in the world.
Born in Lambeth, Ontario, and educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto, Professor Stanton interrupted his mathematical studies to spend a year in Rio de Janeiro learning Portuguese and his first academic appointment was as an instructor in Portuguese.
Professor Stanton's distinguished research is the basis of the respect he commands among the international community of mathematicians. He has an exceptionally wide span of expertise and has twice been honoured by the Canada Council for his research, having been both a Killam Laureate and the recipient of a Killam prize. He is also an energetic and discriminating editor and publisher of mathematical books and journals, and a superb organiser who developed the centres of mathematical excellence at the University of Waterloo and the University of Manitoba. Years ago, he was one of the first to realise that the computer revolution was just around the._corner, and to develop the study of the combinatorial mathematics relevant to computer science and in turn made applicable by the use of the computer.
Ralph Stanton's Australian visits always include visits to this university and work with the combinatorics group in the Department of Mathematics. He has also been very much involved with the Combinatorial Mathematics conferences, the last of which was held here just a few weeks ago.
Mr Chancellor, in recognition of his sustained major contributions to mathematical research and teaching in Australia and his close links with this University, I present to you Ralph Gordon Stanton, Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Toronto, Doctor of Science honoris causa of the University of Newcastle, Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, Killam Laureate, Distinguished Professor of the University of Manitoba, for conferral of the award of Doctor of Science honoris causa, to which he has been admitted by the Senate of the University.