Heinrich W. Guggenheimer is professor emeritus of Polytechnic University (formerly Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn), where he taught mathematics and also Jewish studies in the Department of Humanities. He received his M.S. and Sc.D. degrees from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and his Jewish training at the Bet Hamidrash of Basel, Switzerland. He also taught at Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University, Washington State University, and the University of Minnesota. He has published over 150 research papers in mathematics and Talmud and is the author of Differential Geometry, Plane Geometry and Its Groups, Mathematics for Scientists and Engineers, Applicable Geometry, BASIC Mathematical Programs for Engineers and Scientists, Seder Olam (in Hebrew), and, together with his wife, Dr. Eva H. Guggenheimer, Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary. He currently teaches a daily class in Talmud at Congregation Anshei Shalom, West Hempstead, New York.