Endowed Chairs

The Phillips Professor of Mathematics

Charles Franklin Phillips, the fourth president of the college, and his wife, Evelyn Minard Phillips, bequeathed to Bates a multi-million-dollar endowment to be used to advance academics. In addition to Phillips Fellowships for faculty and students and student research funding, the Phillips Endowment supports two professorships that recognize excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service to the college and the academic profession. The chairs may be awarded to faculty in any discipline.

Peter Wong, Professor of Mathematics

Peter Wong joined the Bates Department of Mathematics in 1988. He has taught widely in math, including Calculus, Linear Algebra, Complex Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Probability, Geometry, Topology, and Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. A prolific researcher and the author of over 65 journal articles and nearly 200 invited talks and conference presentations, he studies topology, the properties of twisted and stretched and otherwise transformed objects, a field with connections to geometry and applications in economics and other fields. His research reach is truly global, with collaborators and visiting scholar appointments in India, Brazil, Poland, Italy, France, Spain, the UK, China, and Mexico, among others. In addition to his work on topology, Peter and his students have studied sangaku, the geometric panels carved into temples in Edo-period Japan. Among his service commitments to Bates, Peter is chair of mathematics and serves on the Faculty Personnel Committee.