Stanley Chang Professor of Mathematics, Wellesley College
I am engaged in the study of the curvature and rigidity of high-dimensional manifolds, using such tools that appear in algebraic topology, differential geometry, index theory and C*-algebras. The examination of such properties has been of classical interest, but recent developments have reanimated the subject in both the compact and noncompact contexts. Currently, I am co-authoring an advanced textbook on surgery methods and applications which will describe the many topological theorems proved in the 1970s and 1980s.
I teach and/or have taught a wide variety of courses at all levels of the mathematics curriculum, including calculus, linear algebra, abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, topology and Galois Theory. More recently, I have developed courses in Advanced Number Theory, Functional Analysis and Stochastic Processes. Many of our advanced students request independent study courses and research opportunities, and I have overseen such efforts in the study of modular forms, advanced analysis, representation theory and logic. In the Fall of 2016, I offered an Applied Calculus course that motivated theory and calculation with real-world problems in the life and social sciences.
At Wellesley, I have served both on the 2015 Commission, the Academic Planning Committee and the Presidential Search Committee in 2016. In these campus bodies, I am interested in helping the College maintain high academic standards for all of its students. In my own department, I am very much involved in the effort to build our curricular offerings and to prepare our students for graduate studies. Along with Professor Oscar Fernandez, I co-created the Wellesley Emerging Scholars Initiative in the hopes to increase the participation by underrepresented minorities in the mathematical sciences.
