Archibald Dean MacGillivray, a longtime professor of mathematics at UB, died Aug. 13 in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City after a brief illness. He was 71.

MacGillivray, who retired this year, was a member of the Department of Mathematics faculty for 37 years and served as department chair from 1977-78.

He was an applied mathematician who taught undergraduate and graduate courses in introductory and advanced calculus, real and complex analysis, and differential geometry.

He was a recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

A recognized expert in asymptotic expansion theory, his research interests ranged from hydrodynamics to molecular biology and the role of transcendentally small asymptotic terms that model the perturbations leading to tissue and organ differentiation. His most recent work focused on applying mathematical analyses to the complex processes carried out by multi-potential stem cells.

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, MacGillivray received a bachelor's degree in engineering physics, with a minor in mathematics, from the University of British Columbia. He received master's and doctoral degrees in aeronautical engineering, with minors in both mathematics and physics, from the California Institute of Technology.

While at Cal Tech, he conducted research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA facility run by the university.

He also worked at Lincoln Laboratory, run by MIT, while doing a post-doctoral fellowship at MIT.