2025 AOY Honoree, College of Science - Class of 1971
Duncan Buell graduated from the University of Arizona in 1971 with a bachelor’s in mathematics, continuing a family legacy of U of A alumni that began in the early 1900s.
Duncan finished his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Illinois Chicago in 1976 and taught at Carleton University in Ontario and Bowling Green State University, eventually earning tenure at Louisiana State University in 1982. In 1986, he moved to the new National Security Agency-sponsored Supercomputing Research Center in Maryland. Among other things, he managed the build of a novel computer now standard in high-end computers. He was part of a team receiving a Meritorious Unit Citation from DCI George Tenet for “the largest single computation in the history of the U. S. intelligence community.”
In 2000, Duncan moved to the University of South Carolina, where he served as department chair in computer science for nine years and as interim dean for a year. In 2013, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research spans a wide range of computing applications, including number theory, cryptography, information retrieval, digital humanities, and election data analysis.
In 2016, Duncan founded the Duncan Buell Everything is Mathematics Public Lecture Series Endowment to foster public engagement with mathematics. The series is designed to captivate non-expert audiences, highlighting the relevance and beauty of mathematics in everyday lives.
