Faculty

Professional Experience

As the Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Science, I oversee research, IT, space, enrollment and curriculum for the 23 units in the College. As such I work closely with the Department Chairs and Directors in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. Projects I am working on include:

1. Establishing a bridge program for freshman in the sciences to help increase retention. The program is called Success in Science and is partially funded this year with a MT Space Grant to offer scholarships for Montanans,
2. Creating and modifying the College’s Freshman Seminar,
3. Establishing a College Ambassador Program, a leadership program for students in the College,
4. Expanding the College’s Returning and Community Scholars Program,
5. Establishing a Women’s Mentoring Network between the University of Montana and our partner school, University of Gondar in Ethiopia,
6. Collaborating with colleague at U Gondar as a Fulbright Specialist.

As a mathematician, I study matroids, which are abstractions of finite graphs, geometries or sets of vectors. While matroids are abstract structures, they are exactly what specifies if the greedy algorithm will work. Thus, matroids arise naturally in optimization. Matroids are a part of a branch of mathematics called Combinatorics. Techniques in combinatorics allow us to find a shortest route between two cities, to schedule airplanes (or buses or whatever) in an optimal manner and to schedule workers to jobs (classes to final exam slots or...)  optimally.