Mathematics, Teaching, & Technology
On April 29, 2026, Scott Akin successfully defended his MS thesis! The title of his thesis is An isomorphism theorem for quotient commutation graphs and here is the abstract: Any two reduced expressions for an element of a Coxeter group are related by a sequence of commutation and braid moves. Two reduced expressions are called braid equivalent if they are related by a sequence of only braid…
This group of undergraduate research students (Shaye Fordring, Seb Pardo, and Elenor Rushall, together with Casey Malone) has been a blast to work with! We’ve been studying pattern avoidance in signed Cayley permutations using combinatorial species (blah, blah, blah… fancy-sounding mathematics). The pics are from this year’s Southwestern Undergraduate Mathematics Research Conference (SUnMaRC),…
On April 21, 2026, Allie Pari successfully defended her MS thesis! The title of her thesis is Architecture of braid graphs in Coxeter systems and here is the abstract: Any two reduced expressions for an element of a Coxeter group are related by a sequence of commutation and braid moves. Two reduced expressions are called braid equivalent if they are related by a sequence of only braid moves. Braid…
On Thursday, March 19, 2026, I participated in the NAU 2026 Great Survival Debate , which focused on a scenario where great upheaval has occurred and humanity clearly needs to set up a new world. Each debater was asked to argue that their area of study is the indispensable one that the new civilization must have to flourish. Since the theme fit into my broader mission of elevating the status of…
Samuel and Jake Beichner are two brothers who used to wrestle for my pops. Recently, Sam started an apparel company called Anonymous Warrior, and as part of their marketing, they put out short videos about people’s unsung heroes. Jake put out this short video to honor my father:
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at NAU is now hosting Math on Tap ! The event is meant to be appealing and accessible to a wide range of people. Everyone is welcome. Bring your friends, significant others, neighbors! Math on Tap takes place on the first Wednesday of every month at 6PM at Mother Road Brewery , which is a restaurant, so 21+ is NOT required. Please come join us!! For…
It’s my 45th first day of school! In 1997, I started as a grad student at NAU. At that time, I was in my early 20s, had bleached hair, a soul patch, and wore overalls. And now, at age 50, with less hair, I’m Department Chair. Such a weird feeling!
So this happened today…
In June of 2023, I spent 20 days in Iceland as part of my sabbatical. After two weeks of doing research with Anders Claesson and Giulio Cerbai at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, I met up with my buddy Dylan Turner (@theseasonedbiker) to ride the Westfjords Way Bikepacking Route. The Westfjords Way starts and ends in Isafjordur, Iceland, and is the brainchild of @chrisburkard and a few…
As part of my sabbatical, I traveled to Iceland to collaborate with Anders Claesson and Giulio Cerbai at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. We are currently in the early stages of a project in enumerative combinatorics. On my second day here, I have a talk in their mathematics seminar. The title of my talk was Enumerating signed permutations by reversal distance and here is the abstract: