Dominic Klyve, math professor and interim director of the William O. Douglas Honors College, juggles working inside the classroom and out.

Klyve, after being awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation, is bringing his latest project to life. This project will teach students from original mathematicians and physicists like Isaac Newton, rather than from modern textbooks.

In philosophy, students learn about historical philosophy through the lense of the actual philosophers, such as Descartes and Boethius. In mathematics, students learn about math from modern textbooks.

The idea of this seven-university collaborative project is that instead of learning from modern textbooks, it will help to prepare teachers to be able to teach from the original mathematicians.

Klyve said he enjoys teaching, mathematics and the history of math, which is the reason this project is important to him.

Klyve also said, that the reason for his interest in this project comes from his perspective on math. He said that understanding the background history is vital to understanding math, which is another reason he teaches its history.

Christina Denison, assistant director of the Douglas Honors College (DHC), said that although she doesn’t have extensive information about Klyve’s current project that, “…it will help students and teachers have a clearer understanding of math and mathematical principals.”

“I think they will get a piece of him when they use the curriculum he’s designing,” Denison said.

Before teaching in the mathematics department at Central, Klyve finished his bachelor’s and graduate education. He said his choice of university to study at was “almost random.”

When he was in the Saint Paul area, he decided to tour Hamline University. There,  Klyve was told that he could attend the school. He decided that if he went to Hamline, he wouldn’t have to do applications for other schools.

At Hamline University he acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Physics and a minor in Philosophy.

Klyve became married right out of college, and his wife was attending Dartmouth, so he figured he might as well too. He graduated from Dartmouth in spring 2007 with a Master of Arts in Mathematics (awarded in 2003) and a Doctorate in Mathematics.

Klyve has won a national teaching award in the field of number theory. Awarded by the Mathematical Association of America, the award is granted to a North American teacher in the early stages of their career.

Dartmouth Professor Carl Pomerance said that Klyve “has been extremely interested in that topic for a very long time,” and that he has also been a strong force in the U.S. in the field of mathematics for a long time.

“I think Dominic has a way of teaching math that makes it engaging and interesting…,” Denison said. “He can take something big and he can explain it down.”

She added that it doesn’t matter if you are a math person or not, he makes you be able to understand it.

Denison asked her students students what they liked most about the Douglas Honors College.

“Dominic came up multiple times,” she said. “Somebody just wrote ‘Klyve’ and ‘Dr. Klyve’s classes.’You know he’s so much smarter than you are, but he never makes you feel less than. I just really enjoy that.”

In college, there were a few difficult classes and he loved to be able to explain things and help make things clearer to other students.

“I guess there are two things that have been my favorite things to do and those are math and explaining things,” Klyve said. “I believe that a lot of the mathematics we do is eternal and exists in a world beyond us.”

Klyve is proficient in Spanish, has reading proficiency in French and Portuguese and limited reading proficiency in German and Latin. He says it is very important to read past books in their languages and that it’s crucial to his work.

“Dominic’s enthusiasm for teaching is infectious,” Denison said. “I was listening to him – and I’m older than him – and I was just thinking ‘I want to be like Dominic when I grow up.’”