He's no Mickey Mouse prof

He's worked for organizations ranging from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the Walt Disney Co. — and undertaken mathematical analysis in areas that include finance and oceanography.

Roger Davidson, who teaches mathematics at Yuba College, has a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado and a gift for making a subject that many find intimidating make sense — even if "you just sort of wrote it off as a skill you're never going to be good at."

The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges has selected him as a fellow for a project intended to advance community college careers.

His work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena proved a lesson about how many people have extensive educations. About a third of the workers at the lab had Ph.D's, he recalled.

"People don't call one another 'Doctor,'" the 44-year-old Davidson said. "It made me more humble."

His work in computer-related management for Disney revealed a possibly little-known fact about its famous amusement parks. Computers track park attendance — and it was sometimes necessary to temporarily block admission to the parks.

"It doesn't happen very often," Davidson said of the parks reaching capacity on crowded summer weekends.

He was raised in Edina, Mo., about three hours north of St. Louis.

"That kind of small town is a great place to grow up," Davidson said.

Teaching at Yuba College is a great experience for the instructor who said he's more interested in interacting with students than in undertaking the research commonly performed by professors at four-year universities.

Davidson has taught classes including pre-algebra and beginning algebra — and has a message for those who find mathematics compelling.

"If you're interested, this field gets deeper and deeper, more interesting and more beautiful," Davidson said. "Mathematics is the language that the universe speaks."

Physics, chemical interactions and the movement of the planets are among the manifestations of mathematical order in the world.

So, Davidson said, is a more fundamental fact discovered early in human history when people started charting the patterns of the sun and sky to determine when it was best to plant grain.

Much more complex considerations make up the math of college classrooms and modern life, Davidson added, which shows the range of issues that mathematics can cover.

He and others at Yuba College followed the television series "Numb3rs" about a mathematician who used equations to assist in solving crimes.

Davidson also likes the 1999 movie "October Sky" for its use of math, science and engineering in the story about a student with a passion for rockets. The film's message about what one determined person can accomplish also helped make Davidson a fan.

As a fellow in the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, he'll attend special sessions at the group's annual conference.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appeal-democrat.com