John Keith Oddson
Associate Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus
John Keith Oddson, an Associate Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at UC Riverside, died on November 27, 2013, three days short of his 78th birthday, in Riverside, California.
A native of Canada, Dr. Oddson was born on November 30, 1935, and grew up in Kenora, Ontario. Dr. Oddson received a B.A.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto in 1957, an S.M. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1960, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Maryland in 1965.
During 1965-66, Dr. Oddson was a postdoctoral NATO Fellow at the University of Genoa. He served for a year as a research assistant professor at the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Maryland; then in 1967 he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at UC Riverside.
A successful and versatile instructor, Dr. Oddson was known for his dedication to his students and his work in both pure and applied research. He had current projects in pure mathematics (extremal elliptic partial differential operators and their applications) and in applied mathematics (mathematical modeling and computer simulation of agricultural pest management system). During his years at UCR, Dr. Oddson taught himself modeling and simulation and participated in the department’s computer science program.
Dr. Oddson was active in faculty life, serving on many Senate and college committees and in the UCR chapter of Sigma Xi. In 1978 he organized a 20-seminar series on mathematical modeling of biological systems. He was an important member of the planning committee that established the Bourns College of Engineering, and subsequently served for ten years as its Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs.
Dr. Oddson retired from UCR in 2002 but continued to live in Riverside with his wife, Marolyn. He was a very loving and devoted father, husband, and friend. He loved fishing and camping, singing songs while playing on his Lone Ranger guitar around the campfire and at home.
Dr. Oddson was survived by his loving wife, and three children, Karen, Kathy, and Roger.
This memorial was prepared by Alexander Barinov, Assistant Professor of Finance at the UCR School of Business, using information from public sources.
