Matthew T. Dickerson is an American academic working as a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

.Faculty profile
at Middlebury College, retrieved 2009-11-19. A scholar of J. R. R. Tolkien's literary work and the

Inklings The Inklings were an informal literature, literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusia ...

, Dickerson is by his own account a novelist, newspaper columnist, blues musician, historian of music, fly fisherman, maple sugar farmer, and beekeeper.

Education

Dickerson received an A.B. from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1985 and a Ph.D. in computer science from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, under the supervision of

Dexter Kozen Dexter Campbell Kozen (born December 20, 1951) is an American theoretical computer scientist. He is Professor Emeritus and Joseph Newton Pew, Jr. Professor in Engineering at Cornell University. Career Kozen received his BA in mathematics from ...

, in 1989. His Ph.D. research was in

symbolic computation In mathematics and computer science, computer algebra, also called symbolic computation or algebraic computation, is a scientific area that refers to the study and development of algorithms and software for manipulating mathematical expressions ...

, but since then he has worked primarily in computational geometry; his most frequently cited computer science papers concern ''k''-nearest neighbors algorithm and

minimum-weight triangulation In computational geometry and computer science, the minimum-weight triangulation problem is the problem of finding a triangulation of minimal total edge length. That is, an input polygon or the convex hull of an input point set must be subdivided ...

. Dickerson has been on the

faculty since receiving his Ph.D.Biography
as an invited speaker at the 19th Annual Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry, Tufts University, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-18.

Career

From 1997 to 2001, Dickerson published a biweekly column on fishing and the outdoors in the ''Addison Independent'', a local newspaper. Since 2002, he has been the director of the New England Young Writers Conference,Biography
as a featured speaker at the Fall 2009 Houghton College Writing Festival. Retrieved 2009-11-18. an annual four-day conference for high school students in

Bread Loaf, Vermont Bread Loaf is an unincorporated community within the town of Ripton in Addison County, Vermont, United States. The community is on the west flank of Bread Loaf Mountain. The community formerly had a post office. The Bread Loaf Writers' Conferen ...

, that is associated with Middlebury College. He is also the founding director of the Vermont Conference on Christianity and the Arts. He plays bass in a Vermont-based blues band, Deep Freyed.

Tolkien scholarship

Dickerson is the author of six non-technical books, most of them about

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

fiction. His 2003 book ''Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'', a study of the moral and Christian values expressed by Tolkien's works, highlights the contrasts between moral and physical victories, and between heroism and violence; it points out the necessity of having free will in order to make moral choices. It was shortlisted for the

Mythopoeic Society The Mythopoeic Society (MythSoc) is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis. These men were all members of The Inklings, an informa ...

's 2004 and 2005 Mythopoeic Scholarship Awards. He has written a pair of books on Tolkien,

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

, and

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

, ''Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien''Reviews of 'Ents, Elves, and Eriador'': Review by

Patrick Curry Patrick Curry (born 1951) is an independent Canadian-born British scholar who has worked and taught on a variety of subjects from cultural astronomy to divination, the ecology movement, and the nature of enchantment. He is known for his studies o ...

(2007), ''Tolkien Studies'' 4: 238–244, ; Review by Susan Palwick (2008), ''Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment'' 15 (1): 266–268, . and ''Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C. S. Lewis''. Despite giving the first of these two books an overall negative review, reviewer

writes that it is "a major new contribution to the subject of Tolkien's work".

Other books

His other books include ''The Finnsburg Encounter''. a work of historical fiction, translated into German as ''Licht uber Friesland'', ''Hammers and Nails: The Life and Music of Mark Heard'', a biography of musician

Mark Heard John Mark Heard III (December 16, 1951 – August 16, 1992) was an American record producer, folk rock singer and songwriter from Macon, Georgia. Heard released sixteen albums, and produced or performed with many artists, including: Sam Phil ...

, and ''From Homer to Harry Potter: A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy''.Review of ''From Homer to Harry Potter''
Review by Gregory Hartley
(2007), ''Christianity and Literature''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickerson, Matthew T. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists Dartmouth College alumni Cornell University alumni Middlebury College faculty Researchers in geometric algorithms Tolkien scholars