Dean’s List: Numbers Matter

 By Lynda Coon

Honors scholars love lists—lengthy “to-do” lists in electronic or scribal form, resume lists of academic accomplishments and lists of lifelong career goals. Numbers matter. Indeed, the history of numbers and their symbolic capital (i.e., numerology) drive much of human history. Here in the Honors College, the Dean keeps lengthy, historic lists too – records of things not always featured in campus data. I hope you enjoy reading this year’s Dean’s List of standout numbers, highlighting the marvels of our undergraduates, faculty and alumni, and ordered from 40,000 to 10.

40,000 Mesopotamian Artifacts

Joshua Jacobs  (B.A., classical studies, summa cum laude, ‘23) will spend the next six years at Yale University on a fully funded Ph.D. package enabling him to confront the oldest numerical system to date –  that of ancient Mesopotamia, which operated around a system of 60 units. Yale’s list of artifacts astounds —40,000 cuneiform tablets and objects available for scrutiny by those lucky enough to win a seat at the Ancient Assyrian seminar table. Jacob will join a gaggle of gifted doctoral students, where they will discover together the ancient art of counting and the humanistic pursuit of premodern cultures.

2,700 Miles

Our alumni often count the number of countries they travel to during and after graduation, but some do much more. Katherine González (B.S.I.B., magna cum laude, ‘10) rehabilitated a thirty-year-old Pacific Seacraft 34 into an ocean-going beauty and sailed 2,700 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to French Polynesia. Counting was part of survival: estimating the length of unfamiliar shorelines, reckoning the height of fifteen-foot waves pounding the deck and numbering pods of whales dancing gracefully before the ship. At sea, Katherine learned the lessons of numbers and the resiliency necessitated by navigating the daunting terrain of the ocean – a tribute to the rigors of her undergraduate career at Arkansas.

50 Design Drafts

Who wouldn’t want to master early medieval Japanese building techniques and make them into an honors capstone project in which accurate numbers could lead either to design glory or material collapse?  Myles Richter (B.S. architectural studies, summa cum laude, ‘23) was undeterred. After 50 tries at mastering the Sashimono technique forged by the builders of the oldest extant buildings on earth, Myles became an expert at counting—geometry and numbers worked together in his honors thesis to fashion a wooden bench assembled without screws or glue, a triumph of numeration and resolve. The result is a seamless work of art, a treasure of treasure among research projects.

Ungar’s 12

Twelve is an apostolic number, an appropriate reckoning for participants in Distinguished Professor Peter Ungar’s biological anthropology research lab peopled with twelve of the Honors College’s top undergraduate scholars. In Ungar’s “teeth” lab, it’s all about counting: 54 steps from Ungar’s office to the lab, 50 skulls, two massive microscopes and 12 honors researchers—the apostolic band of “Ungar-grads” destined for careers in scientific counting. For Ungar, serving as Magister to the twelve Discipuli is the highlight of a career in numbers, including the first-ever U of A faculty member to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Path’s 10.

The Honors College Path Program has hit a milestone in its number history—10 years and counting. Each Path cohort receives a Greek letter, Alpha through Kappa, and Greek letters are still used in calculus classes across the US. The results of Path’s numeracy have far exceeded the original vision for the program: a four-year graduation rate well beyond that of the U of A’s six-year marker; placement in top graduate programs, med schools and law schools; winning prestigious awards including National Science Foundation research opportunities; and working to improve the lives of citizens in Arkansas and beyond.