New Mexico State University mathematics professor Joseph Lakey has received international distinction for achieving excellence in his field. Lakey was recently named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

He is among 1,100 AMS members in this inaugural class receiving the lifetime appointment. Only 50 members annually will be selected in subsequent years.

"I have a number of colleagues in my department who are equally, if not better deserving of this recognition," Lakey said. "If the criteria had been slightly different, it likely would have been one of them chosen and not me."

The 30,000-member AMS was founded in 1888 to further the interests of mathematical research and scholarship. The Fellows of the AMS program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics.

"With the appointment, I hope that I can play a role in the local community and state," Lakey said. "I also plan to nominate some deserving colleagues for future elections."

Responsibilities of AMS fellows include taking part in the election of new fellows, presenting a "public face" of excellence in mathematics and advising the organization's president and/or the council on public matters.

Lakey, who has previously presented at AMS conferences, said he was unaware that he was being considered for the honor.

Lakey joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences at NMSU in 1995. He rose to the level of full professor in 2006 before becoming department head in 2010. He received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1986 and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1991. He has held visiting positions at The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, Macquarie University in Sydney and the University of Newcastle, Australia, as well as Washington University in St. Louis. He currently serves on NMSU's Faculty Senate.

Lakey's research in applied harmonic analysis has led to two co-authored books,
"Time-Frequency and Time-Scale Methods" and "Duration and Bandwidth Limiting."

He has had funded research collaborations with colleagues in engineering and psychology at NMSU, the Physical Science Laboratory and Los Alamos National Lab. Lakey also co-organized the New Mexico Analysis Seminars that were funded by the National Science Foundation, which ran annually from 1997-2009.

"This recognition symbolizes that there are a good number of faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences who would be considered by their professional colleagues nationally and internationally as being in the top 10 or even five percent of the peers in their respective disciplines," Lakey said.