Andrei Toom
Andrei Leonovich Toom, also known as André Toom, is a Russian mathematician currently living in New York City, famous for his early work in analysis of algorithms, cellular automata, probability theory and lifelong interest in mathematical education. Currently, Toom is a retired professor of the statistics department at Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil.
Toom's English-language mathematics articles, published in journals such as the Journal of Statistical Physics, include "Non-Ergodic Multidimensional Systems of Automata," "Discrete Local Markov Systems," "On Critical Phenomena in Interacting Growth Systems," "," "Simple 1-Dimensional Systems with Super-Exponential Relaxation Time," "Tails in Harnesses," "On Percolation with Fibers or Layers," and "Non-Gibbsianness of the invariant measures of non-reversible cellular automata with totally asymmetric noise".
His English-language articles on education include "A Russian Teacher in America," "From Russia with Math," "How I Teach Word Problems," "Word problems: Applications vs. Mental Manipulatives," "Between Childhood and Mathematics: Word Problems in Mathematical Education," and the unpublished manuscript, "Wars in American Mathematical Education".
Toom was a student of Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro.
One of Toom's noteworthy works includes the Toom-Cook algorithm for multiplying large integers, which is used for numbers of intermediate size, before the asymptotically faster Schönhage–Strassen algorithm becomes practical for bigger numbers.
