My name is
Erich Friedman. For
26 years, I was a Professor
of Mathematics at Stetson
University, located in DeLand,
Florida. I retired in 2018 to
spend more time on my other
interests, including recreational
mathematics, puzzles, trivia,
and my girlfriend of
30 years.

I was born in
1965 in West Lafayette,
Indiana. I grew up in
Indianapolis and went to
North Central High School.
I got my bachelor's degree
from Rose-Hulman in 1987,
and my Ph.D. from Cornell
University in 1991, and
have been at Stetson
ever since.

My advisor
was Rick Durrett, who
studies Interacting Particle
Systems. Here is my
Mathematical Family Tree.
I am currently interested in
Game Theory, Geometrical
Packing, and Graph Theory,
though I have published in a
variety of fields. Here
is my Vita.

While I was
teaching, I mostly taught
calculus and statistics
(and precalculus when we still
taught that class) at the lower
level, and calculus-based
Probability and Statistics at
the upper level. The full list
of courses I taught can be
found here.

I am a
Libertarian and
an Atheist. I consider
myself a Feminist, and I'm a
member of the ACLU. I have
memorized the first 50 digits
of Pi. I am an INTJ and I
Juggle. I build card houses,
and I'm interested in my
Family Tree.

Besides teaching,
my main passion is
playing games, such as
Chess, Go, Backgammon,
Bridge, Poker, and Mah Jongg.
I co-wrote a computer game
called Goldpusher. I also
spend time trying to prove
various solitaire games
are NP-complete.

I used
to own the largest
Puzzle Collection in
Florida. I also make Puzzles,
many of which have been
Published in World of Puzzles,
Brain Games, WordPlay, and
Games magazines. I have also
made puzzles for the U.S.,
U.K., and World Puzzle
Championships.
 

Musically,
I like Pink Floyd,
The Beatles, Peter Gabriel,
Thomas Dolby, Brandi Carlile,
The Indigo Girls, The Talking
Heads, Kasey Musgraves, and
Billy Joel. If you like humorous
music, try the Capitol Steps,
Tom Lehrer, Uncle Bansai,
Weird Al Yankovic,
and the Bobs.

For humor,
my favorite comic
strips are Fox Trot, Zits,
Dilbert, and Doonesbury.
I used to love The Far Side and
Calvin and Hobbes. Other
funny sites include the Darwin
Awards, Movie-a-Minute,
Flying Spaghetti Monster,
Bozo Criminals,
and Resumania.

I also like
playing Tennis, going
to movies at the Enzian,
eating Thai Food, the art of
M. C. Escher, listening to the
News on NPR, buying stuff
from Ebay, reading Science
Fiction, making Ambigrams,
and Friendship Bracelets,
and of course surfing
the Web.