I grew up in Alliance, Ohio, two hours southwest of Erie. I joined the Department of Mathematics here at Gannon in 1999. My wife Kristin and I have been married 33 years. Kristin teaches English as a Second Language at Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary in the Erie School District. We have two adult children.
My Ph.D. is in the area of algebraic combinatorics. Combinatorics is the mathematics of finite sets - think about problems like counting the number of possible lottery tickets, or constructing a schedule for a sports league. Algebra, especially matrix algebra, is a source of both questions and solutions in combinatorics. More recently I have become interested in statistics both for the mathematics involved and as a way to collaborate with colleagues from other departments who have data to analyze. And I am also interested in the history of astronomy, so I have translated articles by the 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler on calculating the orbits of the Earth and Moon.
My biggest claim to fame on campus is probably my appearance as a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2004. I was also a contestant on Jeopardy! as a graduate student, and I’ve written articles about the mathematics of both shows for Math Horizons. Outside of math, I enjoy travel, history, astronomy, and choral singing. My wife and I are big fans of the local arts scene. Erie has many talented, creative people. We attend a play, concert, ballet, or gallery event nearly every weekend and still don't manage to see everything we would like to see.
Educational History
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Pennsylvania State University, Master's in Applied Statistics, 2015.
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University of Michigan, Ph.D., Dissertation: Reduced Expressions in Infinite Coxeter Groups, 1994
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Case Western Reserve University, B.S., 1989
Professional Experience
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Professor, Gannon University, 2022-present
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Associate Professor, Gannon University, 2007-2022
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Assistant Professor, Gannon University, 1999-2007
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Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1996-1999
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Post-Doctoral Fellow and Part-Time Lecturer, University of Waterloo (Ontario), 1994-1996
Publications
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The distance magic property and two families of Cartesian product graphs. Electronic Journal of Graph Theory and Applications, 13(1) (2025), 197-209.
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On the Motion of the Nodes of the Moon and the Variation of its Inclination to the Ecliptic (an English translation of De Motu Nodorum Lunae Eiusque Inclinationis Ad Eclipticam Variatione). Euleriana, 3(2) (2023), 47-80.
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A Method for Calculating the Equation of Noon (an English translation of Methodus Computandi Aequationem Meridiei). Euleriana 2(2) (2022), 67-78.
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Application of the common base method to regression and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in qPCR experiments and subsequent relative expression calculation (with Ganger, M.T., Dietz, G.D., and Ewing, S.J.). BMC Bioinformatics 21 (2020), 423.
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Who Wants to Be a Half-Millionaire?, Math Horizons, February 2007, 16-17.
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Fibonacci and Square Numbers, Convergence, posted September 2006, http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=1296
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How I Lost On Jeopardy!, Math Horizons, April 1999, 27-28.
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On a Family of Hyperplane Arrangements Related to the Affine Weyl Groups, Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics 6 (1997), 331-338.
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On Young’s Orthogonal Form and the Characters of the Alternating Group, Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics 5 (1996), 127-134.
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R-Sequenceability and R*-Sequenceability of Abelian 2-Groups, Discrete Mathematics 131 (1994), 345-350.
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A Counterexample to a Voronoi Constellation Conjecture, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 37 (1991), 1665-1666.
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Harmonious Groups (with R. Beals, J. Gallian, and D. Jungreis), Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A 56 (1991), 223-238.
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The Duluth Undergraduate Research Program in Mathematics: A Participant’s Perspective, in Models for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics, ed. Lester Senechal, 103-4. Mathematical Association of America, Washington, 1991.