Professor Boller

<p>I'm an incoming second year who is (hopefully) enrolled in honors analysis (I turned the application in during the summer after realizing there was an application process thanks to Professor Glauberman). I understand that John Boller will be teaching the course this year (first two quarters I'm guessing). Having talked to students from each of the past two years of the course, I've heard that Rhyzhik and Sally took rather different approaches to the material in the first quarter. Would any of the math majors on this board be able to comment on whether Boller's teaching style is perhaps very different from the previously mentioned instructors? I realize that this is perhaps the first time Boller has taught honors analysis in recent years, if not the very first, so maybe this question doesn't make sense. I have heard that he is a terrific instructor though.</p>

<p>He is a terrific instructor, and incredibly clear. I have never taken a class with him, but he taught Honors Analysis one week when Sally was gone, and I was a SESAME counselor for his Prob Theory course.</p>

<p>I would expect that he would follow the normal Honors Analysis course when taught by Sally, since the two seem to be rather close. Boller’s teaching style is very mainstream. Ryzhik was a serious researcher, and his teaching style indicated it - classes weren’t required, it was all lecture, and most of the course material was in the book (Rudin). On the other hand, Sally would make students write on the board for him as he spoke (this was when he was in a wheelchair) and he would ask random people questions about new concepts. Boller is a mix of the two - he mostly lectures based on his own notes rather than the book (all algebraists seem to do this), and very occasionally asks students questions.</p>

<p>Thanks for the informative reply Phuriku. I had also guessed that Boller’s teaching style would be somewhat of a mix between the two. I have heard that Sally is working on a more advanced analysis text so it’ll be interesting to see what Boller recommends or requires as reading for the course.</p>

<p>Snipez, S1 has talked to Prof. Boller a number of times and likes him a lot. Guess this means Dianne Herrmann may be teaching Honors Algebra – S had heard that one of them would being running that this fall.</p>