Byron Schmuland's Home Page

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11.

I was born on August 21, 1958 in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, but I grew up in Stony Plain, Alberta. I began studying at the University of Alberta in 1976, when new wave was new and disco was king. Here I fell in with the right crowd, and discovered the beauty and fascination of mathematics. In those pre-VCR days, I spent a lot of time at the Princess Theatre, and I also had a stint working as a DJ for the campus radio station CJSR. Then in 1983, I went to Ottawa to do my Ph.D. under Prof. D.A. Dawson at Carleton University. There I met the beautiful and charming Giseon Heo who married me on December 13, 1986. Our daughter Grace Serome Schmuland was born December 31, 1994. On August 7 1998, my wife became Dr. Heo by getting her Ph.D. in statistics. 여보, 축하해!

Since 1987 I've been working at the University of Alberta. My research is about stochastic processes, that is, time and chance. My speciality is the theory of Dirichlet forms.


My hobby is trying to learn Korean. I've travelled to both North and South Korea, where I inflicted my version of their language on innocent and unsuspecting Korean citizens. Click on the flags for travel information.

I visited Beijing in the summer of 2002 and found this terrific outfit called Beijing hikers. They are great if you want to hike in the countryside near Beijing, away from the normal touristy spots. Your hosts, Gary and Huilin Pinnegar, use local farmers to find interesting, out of the way hiking trails. Our group went to Qinglongxia great wall for a pretty intense 4 hour hike. Everyone is welcome and they include transportation, lunch, and drinks at very reasonable prices. Beijing Hikers have dayhikes and overnighters. Highly recommended!
Walk across Korea 2005.

Walk across England 2006.

My photo album.

The Schmuland family history is under construction.

My official home page in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences.