Profiles in Excellence 

Dr. Susan Kelly, a mathematics professor at UW-La Crosse, might be feeling some déjà vu as she collaborates with Dr. James Walker, a UW-Eau Claire mathematics professor.

When she was a UW-Eau Claire undergraduate student 25 years ago, Kelly collaborated on research with Walker and Dr. Fred King, a UW-Eau Claire chemistry professor.

Kelly also took classes from Walker, who shared with his students the experience of writing his first book and encouraged students to offer their input, she said.

“He treated us like colleagues as much as students,” Kelly said of Walker.

“I was lucky to be working with several very gifted students, including Sue Kelly, Ken Dykema and Doug Pearson,” Walker said.

“One of the reasons I was able to write my first book on Fourier analysis, a beginning graduate-level text that is still in print, was because of the interaction with those students.”

Walker said he had no idea he’d be working with Kelly again 25 years later.

“Sue Kelly and I have collaborated on a paper on wavelet theory together and intend to continue this work,” Walker said. “She is a very accomplished water colorist and also is working on applying wavelets to studying the problem of classifying different styles of painting. Sue is analyzing paintings as images by detecting various types of brushstrokes at different size scales and, in general, by analyzing the edges in the image at multiple sizes and resolutions.”

Kelly, who earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics from UW-Eau Claire in 1985, worked with King her senior year. Her undergraduate research work with King appeared in a published paper with another of King’s research students.

“Dr. King gave students independence and encouraged creative approaches to research problems,” Kelly said. “That experience taught me that you can have an expectation in mind but that results of your work may be surprising.”

Collaborative research is important for students in many ways, King said.

“For the student, it’s taking what you have learned in the classroom setting and trying to figure out how it can be used to approach the solution of an unsolved problem,” King said. “It’s about learning how to think creatively and how to deal with failure. It’s about the great joy of discovering something new, and it’s about growing as a person.”

Kelly attended Washington University in St. Louis, where she received a master’s degree in 1988 and a doctorate in 1992. Kelly joined the faculty at UW-La Crosse in 1992 and continues the tradition she first experienced at UW-Eau Claire by doing research with undergraduates.

“When I work with students, I remember my experiences with Jim Walker and Fred King and try and live up to their example,” Kelly said.