Tenure-track Faculty

This list includes all members of OSU's permanent faculty in mathematics.

Alan Adolphson

B.A., Western Washington U.; Ph.D., Princeton, 1974. He works in number theory and arithmetical algebraic geometry. Particular interests include exponential sums, algebraic varieties over finite fields, cohomology theories, and the algebraic theory of differential equations.

Doug Aichele

B.A./M.A., U. of Missouri; Ed.D., University of Missouri/Columbia, 1969. He is interested in issues and trends related to mathematics education (e.g. the school mathematics curriculum) and the professional development of mathematics teachers. He is also interested specifically in the school geometry curriculum.

Dale Alspach

B.S., U. of Akron; Ph.D., Ohio State, 1976. Analysis, functional analysis, harmonic analysis. His particular interest is in the geometry of Banach spaces. This involves computations in a variety of function spaces and uses methods from advanced calculus, complex analysis, probability, and other areas.

Leticia Barchini

Ph.D., 1987, U. Nac. de Cordoba, Argentina. Representation theory of semisimple Lie groups and analysis on homogeneous spaces.

Dennis Bertholf

B.S., U. of Kansas; M.A., New Mexico State; Ph.D., New Mexico State, 1968. Abelian group theory, mathematics education.

Birne Binegar

B.S./M.S., U.C.L.A.; Ph.D., U.C.L.A., 1982. Interested in groups of geometrical transformations, and the actions such transformations induce on spaces of functions. In particular, he focuses on occasions when the action of a group G of differentiable transformations of a given space M induces an action on a space of square integrable functions over M that preserves the inner product. When M is a symplectic manifold, this problem is equivalent to finding a ``quantization'' of M.

Hermann Burchard

Dipl.-Math, U. of Hamburg; Ph.D., Purdue, 1968. Algorithms and theory of numerical computer methods and software. There are at least three ``layers:'' Mathematics, algorithms, and computing practice. Numerical solution of equations, approximation of functions, integration, linear algebra and differential equations, optimization. Each of these areas has many interesting numerical procedures, often with an involved theory of accuracy (convergence, error estimates).

Jen-Tseh Chang

B.A., National Tsing-Hua University; Ph.D., Harvard, 1985. He is interested in representation theory for reductive Lie groups; a typical example of a reductive group is the group of all invertible matrices (of fixed size). The subject deals with (possibly infinite-dimensional) vector spaces with symmetry (manifested by ``actions'' of groups); through these linear spaces, the geometric, analytic, and algebraic properties of the groups are explored.

James Choike

B.S., U. of Detroit; M.S., Purdue U.; Ph.D., Wayne State, 1970. His interests in mathematics are topics in complex analysis, especially the behavior of functions near singularities; applied mathematics, especially problems that arise in an industrial and multi-disciplinary setting; and the history of mathematics, especially the development of mathematics by cultures other than western/European cultures.

James Cogdell

B.S., Yale; Ph.D., Yale, 1981. Number theory, automorphic forms.

J. Brian Conrey

B.A., U. of Santa Clara; Ph.D., Michigan, 1980. His interests are in Number Theory, especially the Riemann zeta-function and the analytic theory of L-functions. L-functions arise from various sources in Number Theory. They are Dirichlet series whose coefficients contain arithmetical information. In the simplest case, that of the Riemann zeta-function, all of the coefficients are 1. In other cases the coefficients could arise from the values of group characters; from counting solutions to a set of equations modulo the primes; from the values of characters of representations; or as the eigenvalues of the Laplacian operator on a suitable space. These L-functions conjecturally have many nice properties: they should satisfy a special kind of functional equation; they should have interesting values at special points; and all of their complex zeros should lie on a vertical line in the complex plane. The latter assertion in the case of the Riemann zeta-function is the Riemann Hypothesis, unsolved since it was conjectured by Riemann in 1859. It is one of the most challenging unsolved problems in all of mathematics.

Bruce Crauder

B.A., Haverford College; M.A./Ph.D., Columbia, 1981. Algebraic geometry.

Benny Evans

B.S., OSU; M.A./Ph.D., Michigan, 1971. Low-dimensional topology, mathematics education.

Carel Faber

Ph.D., Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1988. Algebraic geometry. His main interest is intersection theory on the moduli space of curves, with specific attention to the classes that show up in enumerative geometry problems. Other interests are the study of linear orbit closures and questions concerning the moduli spaces of curves and abelian varieties in positive charcteristic.

Amit Ghosh

B.Sc., Imperial College of London; Ph.D., Nottingham, 1981. Analytic number theory, L-functions.

Xianghong Gong

B. Engineering, Jilin University of Technology, M. S., Nanjing University, Ph. D., University of Chicago, 1994. His research work involves real submanifolds in complex Euclidean space, Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theory, and reversible dynamical systems.

William Jaco

B.A., Fairmont State College; M.A., Penn State; Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1968. Low-dimensional topology, Geometric and Combinatorial Group Theory. His primary interest is in classification of three-manifolds. The mathematical questions and techniques in low-dimensional topology are very similar to those in geometric and combinatorial group theory. Much of this work involves decision problems and complex computer algorithms.

John Jobe

B.S., U. of Tulsa; M.S./Ph.D., Oklahoma State, 1966. Professor Emeritus. He is interested in topological properties including connectedness, compactness, local connectedness and compactness, indecomposability and hereditary indecomposability, and the fixed point property of a continuous function. He is also interested in the development of mathematics curricular materials, written and video.

Sheldon Katz

S.B., MIT; Ph.D., Princeton, 1980. His interest is in the area of algebraic geometry, which is the study of polynomial equations and their graphs (in many variables). He is primarily investigating the connection between algebraic geometry and superstring theory.

Marvin Keener

B.S., Birmingham Southern College; M.A./Ph.D., Missouri, 1970. He concentrates on ordinary differential equations. He is currently the Executive Vice-President of the University.

Ignacy Kotlarski

M.S., Warsaw Poland; Ph.D., Wroclaw, 1961. Professor Emeritus. He is interested in the application of various integral transforms (such as Laplace, Fourier, Mellin transforms) and generating functions in Probability Theory.

Weiping Li

B.S., Dalian Institute of Technology; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1992. He is interested in Floer homologies of instantons on 3-manifolds and Lagrangian intersections; semi-infinite homology of infinite Lie algebras; mapping class groups and knot theory.

Lisa Mantini

B.S., University of Pittsburgh, A.M./Ph.D. Harvard University, 1983. Her primary research interest, broadly speaking, is symmetry, ranging from the motions that preserve regular shapes in the plane to the changes of variable that preserve the solutions to certain differential equations of mathematical physics. She is also interested in undergraduate research, in mathematics competitions at the high school and college levels, and in the preparation of mathematics graduate students as teachers of mathematics.

J. Robert Myers

B.A./M.A./Ph.D., Rice U., 1977. His research area, geometric topology, is the study of spaces called manifolds. These are generalizations of the curves and surfaces encountered in calculus. The subject has close ties to group theory and geometry. One particularly rich source of examples and applications, which is also very accessible and easy to visualize, is knot theory. This is exactly what its name implies: the mathematical study of knotted curves in ordinary space.

Alan Noell

B.S., Texas A&M; M.A./Ph.D., Princeton, 1983. He is interested in complex analysis in one and several variables. His main area of work involves convexity properties of certain subsets of complex Euclidean space, including problems related to transformations from one subset to another.

Wayne Powell

B.S., Texas Lutheran College; M.S., Texas A&M; Ph.D., Tulane, 1978. His interests lie in universal properties of groups and lattices, and their interactions with each other. He is also Dean of the Graduate College.

Igor Pritsker

B.A., M.S. Donetsk State University, USSR, 1990, Ph.D. University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 1995. Complex Analysis, Approximation Theory, Potential Theory, Analytic Number Theory and Numerical Analysis.

Zhenbo Qin

Ph.D., Columbia, 1990. His research field is algebraic geometry, which is the study of spaces called varieties. These are generalizations of the Riemann sphere in complex analysis with one variable. The subject has a close relation with algebra. His primary area of work is to give a differential classification of and to study certain geometric objects over complex surfaces.

David Ullrich

B.A./M.A./Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1981. He works with Fourier series, complex/harmonic analysis, and various connections with probability theory. For example: What happens if you choose the coefficients in a Fourier series at random? Or, what does Brownian motion have to do with analytic functions?

Dave Witte

B.A., U. of Wisconsin; Ph.D., U. of Chicago, 1985. He is interested in groups of matrices (and Lie groups). Most of his work is on ``rigidity'' theorems, which show that the correct answer to a mathematical question is the one that is obvious right from the start. (Unfortunately, most math problems don't seem to have a rigidity theorem.) He is also interested in applications of group theory to problems in graph theory.

John Wolfe

B.A. Bucknell U.; M.A./Ph.D., Berkeley, 1971. He is interested in issues in K-16 mathematics education such as (a) reform as envisioned by the curriculum, evaluation, and professional standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; (b) equity and minority issues; (c) the role of technology; and (d) the role of state coalitions. He is specifically interested in early intervention testing programs.

David J. Wright

A.B., Cornell U.; A.M./Ph.D., Harvard, 1982. His primary interest is the study of the properties of fields of algebraic numbers. In particular, he is interested in those properties (discriminants, class-numbers, regulators) that can be studies with tools from the theory of algebraic matrix groups. This theory dates back to the work of Gauss on the theory of equivalence of binary integral quadratic forms. He also studies the theory of Riemann surfaces and Kleinian groups, a subfield of complex analysis. Surprisingly, many concepts in algebraic number theory have very precise analogues in the theory of surfaces. He is particularly interested in the properties of limit sets of Kleinian groups and in the shape of Teichmuller space, which is a kind of parameter space for Riemann surfaces.

Roger Zierau

B.S., Trinity College; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1985. His areas of research include the representation theory of reductive Lie groups and the geometry of homogeneous spaces.