I first met Derrick Hart when he was a student in my Putnam Preparation Class at the University of Missouri. I got to know him quite well and a couple of years later he went to Georgia Tech University to get his Ph.D. Due to family circumstances, Derrick came back to Missouri and got a Ph.D. under my direction. This led to a joint result with Derrick and Jozsef Solymosi on sum product product inequalities, followed by my joint work with Derrick on connections between sum-product inequalities and properties of discrete Radon transforms. These results generated techniques and ideas that continue to play an important role in my work to this day.

After a postdoc at Rutgers and another at Kansas State, Derrick decided to go into industry for family reasons. Before his departure, he created a strong and influential body of work that continues to influence the field of geometric combinatorics.

It is always wonderful to hear from Derrick and share stories and reminiscences.

Derrick is now a software engineer in the Kansas City area.