About the Department of Mathematics

   Department brochure   
Announcements   
History   
Student groups   
Contacts   

We are

  • 24 professors and lecturers
  • 9 part-time instructors
  • 10 graduate students
  • 100 undergraduate majors

We offer

  • 90 sections of
  • 30 different courses to
  • 3000+ students per semester

We receive

  • an average of $300,000 per year in federal and state grants from agencies such as
    • the National Science Foundation
    • the National Institutes of Health
    • the Ohio Department of Education
    • and NASA

We publish

  • 30 papers per year, of which 75% have student co-authors in research areas such as
    • Mathematics of materials
    • Algebra and Number Theory
    • Education in Mathematics

We emphasize

  • Interdisciplinary team research
  • High quality teaching

Department Accolades

  • 11 faculty have won teaching awards
  • 5 faculty have won service awards
  • 4 faculty have won research awards
  • 2 faculty have won early career awards

Credits: M101 and Typhoon Rammasun [NASA, via astronet], Mandelbrot zoom [W. Beyer, via wikimedia].

Contacts

Department Telephone 
(330) 972-7400

Department Email
Email:  math@uakron.edu

Department Fax 
(330) 374-8630 

Mailing Address 
Department of Mathematics 
Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences 
The University of Akron 
Akron, OH 44325-4002 

Department Office 
College of Arts and Sciences Building
Room 220

Department Chair 
Dr. Kevin Kreider 
(330) 972-6121 
Email: kkreide@uakron.edu 

Assistant  to the Chair
Ms. Pamela Hoover 
(330) 972-7401 
Email: phoover@uakron.edu

Secretary
Mr. Anthony Craig
(330) 972-6987
Email: craig6@uakron.edu

Graduate Coordinator 
Dr. Pat Wilber 
(330) 972-6994 
Email: jw50@uakron.edu 

Undergraduate Coordinator 
Dr. J. P. Cossey 
(330) 972-8127 
Email: cossey@uakron.edu

Help

webmaster: Dr Stefan Forcey

Announcements for Spring 2018

    Calendar    
  • Save the date! The 2018 Math Banquet, hosted by the student organizations, will be at 6:30 pm on the evening of Thursday, May the 10th, in room 335 of the Student Union. All are invited.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday April 20 from 4:25 to 5:15 in the conference room CAS 220D.
    Jacob Liddy of the University of Akron will speak on:
    Finding all odd primitive abundant numbers with 6 prime divisors.
  • UA SIAM Student Chapter will host Dr. Daniel Munther, Cleveland State University, this Friday April 6th at 3:30pm in Crouse 209.
    Title: Mechanistic dose-response modeling for Listeria monocytogenes: a new perspective for risk assessment
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday April 6 and 13 from 4:25 to 5:15pm in the conference room, CAS 220D.
    Dr. Stefan Forcey of the University of Akron will speak on:
    How to stock shelves in a polygonal library, or graft cherry trees to a root stock.
  • Thursday, March 15, from 2 to 3 p.m.
    Applications of Geometry to Network Inference
    will be presented by Dr. Dena Asta. The colloquium, hosted by the Department of Statistics, will be held in CAS 109. Asta is an assistant professor of statistics at The Ohio State University.
  • March 22, 4:30-5:30, 306 Leigh Hall: There is a free seminar on Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha, for education, student use, and research applications.
  • On March 23rd, we will be attending a talk by Dr. Candice Price:
    Using Mathematics to Unlock Biological Mysteries. 3 PM · Youngstown State University Lincoln Bldng 510.
    We will be meeting the speaker and other female students. Please, RSVP by email to mespanol@uakron.edu if you plan to participate by March 19th, so we can make arrangements for carpooling.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday, March 9 from 4:30 to 5:20 pm in the conference room CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl of the University of Akron will speak on:
    Doubly-invariant subgroups for the prime p=2.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday February 23 from 4:25 to 5:15pm in the conference room CAS 220D. Dr. JP Cossey of the University of Akron will speak on:
    A graph on p-tuples of partitions (and if there's time, why we care).
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday February 9 from 4:25 to 5:15 in the conference room CAS 220D. Dr. Mark Lewis of Kent State University will speak on: A partition by centers of centralizers for semi-extraspecial groups.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 2018, from 4:25 to 5:15pm in the conference room CAS 220D. Dr. JP Cossey will speak on: Partitions with small defect and what to do with them.
  • Seminars and Colloquia are currently scheduled in algebra, combinatorics and PDE's.
  • Join Pi Mu Epsilon! Anyone can join the student organization as a math club member (no requirements except loving math!) and then apply for honor society membership in the spring.
  • We have now an official SIAM Student Chapter. Anyone can join the student organization.
  • The Women In Mathematics group is hosting seminars this semester by female mathematicians on their research and career opportunities.
    • Anyone can join the student organization. Meet up weekly on days TBA.

Old Announcements for Fall 2017

    
  • Fundraising Event to Support WIM
    Make dinner a selfless act by joining us for a fundraiser to support Women In Mathematics. Come in to the Chipotle at 272 East Exchange Street in Akron on Monday, December 4th 2017 between 4:00pm and 8:00pm. Tell the cashier you’re supporting the cause to make sure that 50% of the proceeds will be donated to Women In Mathematics.
  • SIAM Student Chapter Seminar
    The UA SIAM Student Chapter will host Dr. Pat Wilber, UA math professor, on Thursday November 30th 2017 at 3:00pm in JAR 151.
    Title: An Elastica Model that Describes the Buckling of Cross-sections of Multi-walled Nanotubes
  • The UA SIAM Student Chapter will host Paul Stager, a UA math alumnus and current director of engineering at CISCO, on Friday November 10th 2017 at 3:15pm in Leigh Hall 306. In his talk, Paul will give some insight into software defined networks (SDN), wireless security, wireless location, and work-flow analytics that require machine learning and data analytics, and numerically efficient solutions to non-linear systems of equations.
  • Thanks for a great picnic! Friday, September 15, 2017, 5:45 pm: The annual fall picnic at Sand Run Park Mingo Lodge (map) was hosted by the math student groups: PME, WIM and SIAM. Attendees numbered 35, or 40 if you count one pup and 4 bikes.

    • Old Announcements for Spring 2017

  • Save the date and RSVP to Stefan Forcey! The 2017 Math Banquet, hosted by the student organizations, will be at 6:00 pm on the evening of Tuesday, May the 2nd, in room 312 of the Student Union. All are invited.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday April 21 and 28 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D.
    Dr. JP Cossey of the University of Akron will speak on:
    When hobbies overlap: core partitions and Catalan numbers.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday March 24, 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Stefan Forcey of the University of Akron will speak on:
    Sequence 522: Google directions and the stellohedron
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday March 10 and 17, 2017, from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl will speak on:
    Automorphisms of elementary abelian-over-cyclic wreath product p-groups
  • On Wednesday April 12, 2017 at 3:00pm in CAS 139, UAkron alumna Terrian Nowden from NASA Glenn Research Center will give the talk "From Hands-on to Mathematics to the International Space Station".
  • On Tuesday April 4th (corrected from previous post!), WIM will join the Women in Engineering group for dinner and to listen to invited speaker Mike Lanstrum, a professor at Cuyahoga Community College, who will talk about the History of Women in Mathematics. Free dinner at Rob's Dinning Hall from 5:45-6:20 p.m. The talk will be held in ASEC 223B. Students who would like to attend should RSVP to hec9@uakron.edu by April 1st, 2017. This event is open to men and women. Hope you can make it!
  • On March 23, in CAS 220D, 3:30pm-4:30pm Dmitri Burago (The Pennsylvania State University) will tell us "A Few Fairy Math Tales."
  • On Thursday March 9th at 4pm, the UA SIAM student chapter seminar will present Daniel Rhoads, a PhD student in Engineering Applied Mathematics at UAkron and NASA Fellow. Dan will talk about "Investigation of Carbon Fiber Architecture in Braided Composites Using X-Ray CT Inspection."
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays February 17, 24 and March 3, 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Patrick Showers of the University of Akron will speak on: An arrangement of regular n-simplices in certain n-cubes.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday February 3 and 10, 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Stuart Clary of University of Akron will speak on: Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progression.
  • Thursday February 16th 2017 at 4pm in Olin 107, the UA SIAM student chapter seminar will present Shawn Ryan from the Department of Mathematics at Cleveland State. Dr. Ryan will talk about "Collective Dynamics in Active Biological Systems"
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday Jan. 27 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Stefan Forcey will speak on: Mathematical Shibboleths: Ten 3-step drawings.

    • Old Announcements for Fall 2016

  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday November 18, December 2, and December 9, 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl will speak on: Automorphisms of finite monolithic groups
  • Friday November 18th, 2016 at 4:30pm in CAS 138
    Xiaoyu Zheng, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Kent State University will speak on: Pair Interaction of hard ellipsoids
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday October 28, Nov 4, and Nov 11, 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. JP Cossey will speak on: Euler characteristic of the symmetric group.
  • WIM Lecture Series: Pamela Pyzza, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ohio Wesleyan University will give the talk "Modeling Insect Olfaction: How Bugs Smell" on November 4th, 2016 at 4:30pm.
  • 10/19/16: Igor Boglaev of Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand will speak on "Monotone numerical methods for nonlinear parabolic problems". The seminar will start 2:30 pm in CAS 220D.
  • 10/26/16: Paata Ivanisvili of Kent State University will speak on "Monge-Ampere type equations and their applications to functional isoperimetric inequalities." The seminar will start 2:30 pm in CAS 220 D.
  • NEW DATE! Friday, October 21, 5:30 pm: The annual fall picnic at Sand Run Park Mingo pavilion (map) will be hosted by the math department faculty and student groups: PME, WIM and SIAM. All are invited--students and guests are free, faculty/staff should bring a dish to share. RSVP (not required but appreciated) to Stefan Forcey.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday October 7,14 and 21 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Mark Lewis of Kent State University will speak on: Semi-extraspecial p-groups.
  • Dr. Abigail Shoben, an Associate professor in the Division of Biostatistics at The Ohio State University, will give the next WIM Lecture Series on Friday October 14th 2016 at 4:30pm in CAS 144.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays September 16, 23, and 30, 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15pm in CAS 220D.
    Dr. Hung Nguyen of the University of Akron will speak on:
    Rational-valued and real-valued characters.

    • Old Announcements for Spring 2016

        
    • The PME induction ceremony and the Math Department banquet was hosted by PME, WIM and SIAM in May 2016.
    • Wednesday April 6th 2016 at 3:15-4:15 pm in CAS 144: Wanda Strychalski, from Case Western Reserve University, will speak on: Mathematical Modeling of Cellular Blebbing
    • PDE and Applied Math seminar Thursday 03/17/16. Artem Zvavitch of Kent State University will continue to speak on "Brunn-Minkowski type inequalities for different measures." The seminar starts at 1:00pm in CAS 220 D.
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays March 18, April 1 and April 8 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl will speak on Doubly-invariant subgroups of an abelian 3-group of 3-by-3 matrices.
    • Pi day celebration: 3:00 on Monday March 14 2016 in CAS 220 (but in order to appropriately celebrate, we will not start the party until 3:14 pm). Also at 4:00 pm The Imitation Game will be shown in CAS 240.
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday March 11 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. Dr. Hung Tong-Viet of Kent State University will speak on Brauer characters of q'-degrees
    • Tuesday 03/08/16. Artem Zvavitch of Kent State University will speak on "Brunn-Minkowski type inequalities for different measures." The seminar starts at 2:30pm in CAS 220D
    • A Major Award has been received!
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday February 19 and 26 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. JP Cossey will speak on "The minimal number of characters in a block of a finite (solvable) group"
    • WIM Lecture Series
      Lola Thompson from Oberlin College
      February 24th 2016 at 3:15pm, CAS 144 Title: Twin primes and their kin
    • SIAM Student Chapter Seminar
      David Martin, Chief Data Scientist at ROOT will come to UAkron and give a presentation in the SIAM Seminar on Friday March 11th at 3:30-4:20 pm in LH 312.
      The title of the talk is: What does a mathematician do at a car insurance company?
    • WIM Lecture Series
      Wanda Strychalski from Case Western Reserve
      April 6th 2016 at 3:00pm
    • Wednesday, March 2nd 2016 at 5:30pm, CAS 108 American Greetings is planning a visit to UA to discuss intern and job opportunities for graduate students in Statistics and Mathematics.
    • Women in Math Valentine’s Day Outing! Join us for food and fun on Wednesday, February 10th 2016 at 5:30pm. Meet in the CAS Atrium and go to The Lockview from there! RSVP to Makayla Tyree.
    • Support your peers!
      Mackenzie Jones and Oliver Evans will give talks at the PME YSU Regional Conference on Feb. 20th 2016.
      They will practice their talks on Friday Feb. 12th at 3:30pm in CAS 240.
    • REU Summer Programs 2016
      Still looking for Undergraduate Research Opportunities this summer, here is a link to a list of REU programs with topics and deadlines. Notice that some application deadlines are coming soon.
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays: January 29, Feb 5 and 12 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. Corey Lyons of Kent State University will speak on: Induced characters with equal degree constituents.

    Old Announcements for Fall 2015

        
    • The Department of Mathematics hosted a career seminar by Ms. Ginny Gegick of Aon Hewitt on December 3rd 2015 from 3:30 to 4:30 in LH 312. Ms. Gegick, a UA alumna, works as a retirement actuary for Aon Hewitt. She will talk about what retirement actuaries do.
    • Thursday November 5th, 2015 at 3:30pm Where: Leigh Hall 312 Speaker: Michelle Clem, NASA Glenn Research Center Title: The Critical Role of Math in Flow Visualization Techniques
    • Friday October 2 2015, 5:30pm. The annual fall picnic at Sand Run Park Mingo pavilion (map) was hosted by the math department faculty and student groups: PME, WIM and SIAM. Thanks to all 41* attendees for making it a terrific event! *This number includes at most 3 deer.
    • September 23 2015, 12 pm. Progressive Insurance: Big Data in the Workplace Speaker Series. Student Union Room 335, *Refreshments and snacks will be served!*
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet on Friday September 25 2015 from 9:55 to 10:45am in CAS 220D. JP Cossey will speak on ``Nilpotent blocks of solvable groups'' All are welcome.
    • The UA SIAM Student Chapter hosted UA math alumnus Jacob Trombetta for a talk on Friday, Sept. 11 2015, at 1:30pm in Schrank Hall North 354 (SHN 354). Jacob will talk about his experience working at Applied Vision and the problems he has been working on.

    Old Announcements for Spring 2015

Math Department History

Historical account of the UA mathematics department, prepared by J. Palagallo.