David Webb is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

known for his work on

hearing the shape of a drum To hear the shape of a drum is to infer information about the shape of the drumhead from the sound it makes, i.e., from the list of overtones, via the use of mathematical theory. "Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?" is the title of a 1966 artic ...

. Webb attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

, where he received his PhD in 1983 under the supervision of Kenneth Stephen Brown. He is currently a professor of mathematics at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of ...

. In 2001 Webb and co-author Carolyn S. Gordon were awarded the Mathematical Association of America

Chauvenet Prize The Chauvenet Prize is the highest award for mathematical expository writing. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate, and is awarded yearly by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article ...

for their 1996 '' American Scientist'' paper, "You can't hear the shape of a drum".Chauvenet Prizes
Mathematical Association of America, retrieved 2014-01-19.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Cornell University alumni Dartmouth College faculty Place of birth missing (living people) {{US-mathematician-stub