Hampton

Charles R. Hampton

Johnson Professor of Mathematics

EDUCATION

PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS

MEMBERSHIPS

FAMILY

My family is a very important part of my life. Barbara, my wife of 38 years, is an adjunct member of the faculty at Wooster and also is an editor and author with a book on adolescent literature/reading for parents published by Zondervan. We have three daughters. Jennifer (B.A. from Oberlin College - 1995, M. Phil. from Cambridge University - 1996, Ph. D. in Physics from Cornell University - 2002) is an assistant professor of physics at Washington and Jefferson College. Ellen also graduated from Oberlin College (1997) and after spending seven years on staff with Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, most of that time in either Croatia (1997-99) or in Bosnia-Herzegovi (2001-04), she is now finishing an MLS at the Library School of the University of North Carolina. Our youngest daughter, Karen, lives in a group home for developmentally disabled women in Grand Rapids, MI, works at Calvin College food service, and participates in Special Olympics.

My hobbies include golf, reading and puzzle solving.

PHILOSPHY OF MATHEMATICS

This has been an area of interest since graduate school and I read in this area as time permits. This topic was the focus of my leaves in 1984-85 and 2002-03 spent as a Visiting Scholar in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England. Recently I have become part of a special interest group on the philosophy of mathematics within the Mathematical Association of America, POM SIGMAA. A partially annotated booklist is available.

POLITICAL REDISTRICTING - GERRYMANDERING

Redistricting has been one focus of my research. I provided technical advice for the plaintiff's legal team in the case of Clarence E. Miller vs. The State of Ohio through an analysis of the congressional districting plans for the state of Ohio proposed (and the one adopted) in 1991-92. This was a direct challenge of the redistricting done in 1992 and a test of the issue of bipartisan (incumbent) gerrymandering. The analysis focused on quantitative measures of compactness for legislative redistricting plans and on statistical analysis of the political character of districts. During August and September of 1991, another consultant (Richard L. Morrill of The University of Washington) and I drew Congressional, State Senate, State Assembly, and Board of Equalization districts in California for Governor Wilson's Independent Panel on Redistricting. Under direction of this bipartisan Panel we were allowed to use only geographic and demographic data.

The availability of inexpensive, user-friendly geographical information systems (GIS), which run on desktop computers, has made gerrymandering easier to accomplish. Court decisions and the threat of lawsuits have inhibited the redistricting in some ways. Analysis on a state by state basis of the redistricting following the 2000 census has yet to be done, although the Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas cases are particularly interesting with respect to their political consequences.

CONTACT

Professor Charles Hampton
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Taylor Hall 307
The College of Wooster
Wooster OH 44691
Phone: 330 263 2486
Fax: 330 263 2516
Hampton@Wooster.edu