David R. Prier

     I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. I attended the University of Dayton where I started off majoring in Engineering. After the first year, I decided that Engineering classes weren’t for me, and that I really just enjoyed the math. So, I changed my major to Mathematics. At the end of my undergraduate education, I used my mathematics skills and participated in two different internships with the military. I quickly found that I did not like desk jobs, so I went to graduate school at Auburn University in Alabama.
     My wife, Maria, and I lived in the Deep South for four years and became die hard Auburn Tiger football fans. We moved to Erie in 2010 and love being back in the North. It’s also great to be at a wonderful Catholic University like Gannon. We three kids. We like to visit the Peninsula, the Erie Zoo, and Asbury Woods.
     Three random bits of trivia about me: I have an identical twin brother. I have been sky diving and highly recommend it. In college I purchased a taxidermied bison head that I still have today.

Courses Taught

• Fundamentals of Mathematics 1 (MATH 105)
• Trigonometry (MATH 112)
• Algebra for Business Students (MATH 114)
• Calculus 1 (MATH 140)
• Calculus 2 (MATH 141)
• Applied Statistics (MATH 213)
• Discrete Mathematics 1 (MATH 222)
• Discrete Mathematics 2 (MATH 223)
• Calculus 3 (MATH 242)
• Calculus 4 (MATH 243)
• Linear Algebra (MATH 252)
• Number Theory and Cryptography (MATH 310)
• Probability and Statistics 1 (MATH 312)
• Probability and Statistics 2 (MATH 313)
• Undergraduate Mathematics Research (MATH 380)

Educational History

• University of Dayton, B.S. in Mathematics (double major in Religious Studies), 2006
• Auburn University, Master of Applied Mathematics, 2008
• Auburn University, Ph.D. in Mathematics, Disertation: The Inverse Domination Problem, DI-Pathological Graphs, and Fractional Analogues, 2010.

Professional Experience

• Associate Professor of Mathematics, Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania (2015-present)
• Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania (2010-2015)
• Intern, ATK Aerospace Structures, Beavercreek, Ohio (2006)
• System Analyst, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Beavercreek, Ohio (2005)

Publications

• Boronski, J., Prier, D., Smith, M., “Ample Continua in Cartesian Products of Continua,” Topology and its Applications, 238 (2018), pp. 54-58.

• Levan, P., Prier, D., “Improved Bounds on the Anti-Waring Number,” Journal of Integer Sequences, 20 (2017), Article 17.8.7.

• Dinavahi, C.; Prier, D.; and Tiemeyer, M. “On cycle frames with cycles of length 8,” Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing, 93 (2015) pp. 161-173.

• Fuller Chris, Prier, David R., Vasconi, Karissa A. “New Results on an anti-Waring problem,” Involve. 2 (2014), pp. 239-244.

• D. R. Prier, “Minimum Fractional Totally Dominating Functions and Maximum Fractional Open Neighborhood Packings in Connected Finite Graphs,” Congressus Numerantium, 211 (2012), 33-55.

• P. D. Johnson Jr., D. R. Prier, “Graphs such that All Minimum Dominating Sets Intersect All Maximally Independent Sets,” Utilitas Mathematica 89 (2012), pp. 211-224.

• P. D. Johnson Jr., D. R. Prier, and M. Walsh, “On a Problem of Domke, Dunbar, Haynes, Hedetniemi, and Markus Concerning the Inverse Domination Number,” AKCE J. Graphs. Combin., 7 No. 2 (2010), pp. 217–222.

Scholarship-Research

Most of my research has been in an area of Discrete Mathematics called Graph Theory. A graph is a mathematical object made up of points called vertices and lines that connect some of these vertices called edges. Specifically, I have done much work in Domination Theory.
I have expanded my interests to include Design Theory, Number Theory, and Topology. I’ve also included undergraduates with some pretty interesting research.