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Aparna Higgins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aparna W. Higgins is a mathematician known for her encouragement of undergraduate mathematicians to participate in mathematical research.[1] Higgins originally specialized in universal algebra, but her more recent research concerns graph theory, including graph pebbling and line graphs.[2] She is a professor of mathematics at the University of Dayton.[3]

Education and career

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Higgins is originally from Mumbai, India, and did her undergraduate studies at the University of Mumbai, graduating in 1978.[2] She completed her Ph.D. in 1983 at the University of Notre Dame; her dissertation, Heterogeneous Algebras Associated with Non-Indexed Algebras, a Representation Theorem on Weak Automorphisms of Universal Algebras, was supervised by Abraham Goetz.[4]

In 2009 she became director of Project NExT, after the previous director, T. Christine Stevens, stepped down; this project is an initiative of the Mathematical Association of America to provide career guidance to new doctorates in mathematics.[5]

Higgins is married to Bill Higgins, a mathematics professor at Wittenberg University, and the two regularly take their sabbaticals together in California.[6]

Recognition

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Higgins won a Distinguished Teaching Award from the Mathematical Association of America in 1995, for her contributions to undergraduate research.[1] In 2005 she was one of three winners of the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics of the Mathematical Association of America.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b Aparna Higgins, Ohio Section of the Mathematical Association of America, retrieved 2018-02-17
  2. ^ a b Morning speaker, Pacific Coast Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, March 14, 2009, retrieved 2018-02-17
  3. ^ "Aparna Higgins", College of Arts and Sciences Directory, University of Dayton, retrieved 2018-02-17
  4. ^ Aparna Higgins at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  5. ^ "Aparna Higgins to Become Director of Project NExT" (PDF), MAA Focus, Mathematical Association of America: 15, February–March 2009
  6. ^ "Married math professors join the CLU community for one year", The Echo, California Lutheran University, February 24, 2016, retrieved 2018-02-17
  7. ^ "MAA Prizes Presented in Atlanta" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 52 (5): 543–544, May 2005