The Mathematics of the Simpsons Dave Ebert ddeoregon

The Mathematics of the Simpsons Dave Ebert dde@oregon. k 12. wi. us www. oregonsd. com/webpages/debert

The Simpsons • The longest-running scripted show in television history, starting in December, 1989 • February 2012 – the 500 th episode • 27 Emmy Awards • Five U. S. postage stamps • Time Magazine named The Simpsons the “Best Show of the 20 th Century”

J. Stewart Burns • Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvard • Senior thesis on The Structure of Group Algebras • Master’s degree in mathematics from UC Berkeley

David S. Cohen (David X. Cohen) • Member, New Jersey high school state champion mathematics team • Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in physics from Harvard • Master’s degree in computer science from UC Berkeley • Published in Discrete Applied Mathematics • Still belongs to a math club

Al Jean • Bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in mathematics from Harvard • Current executive producer and head writer of The Simpsons

Ken Keeler • Bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) and Ph. D in applied mathematics from Harvard • Doctoral thesis: Map Representations and Optimal Encoding for Image Segmentation • Published in Discrete Applied Mathematics

Jeff Westbrook • Bachelor’s degree in physics and the history of science and Ph. D in computer science from Princeton • Doctoral thesis: Algorithms and Data Structures for Dynamic Graph Algorithms • Associate professor at Yale • Published in Discrete Applied Mathematics