For the 2005-2006 school year, I was on sabbatical from Taylor. I was at the University of Michigan as a Visiting Associate Professor. There I coordinated their Calculus II course and helped implement the instructor training program. I also did research on teaching and learning of college mathematics and Knot Theory.
I obtained my doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1998. My major area was algebraic number theory, and my research was on the relationship between elliptic curves and the three-ranks of class groups of quadratic fields. J. S. Milne was my thesis advisor. While at Michigan I served as an instructor for several courses, I was a trainer for novice instructors, and one semester I coordinated all the sections of the precalculus course.
I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern University, where I majored in mathematics, economics, and mathematical methods in the social sciences. I graduated from Woodlan High School in Woodburn, IN.
My current research interests include Knot Theory, lesson planning approaches of novice instructors, students' intuitive mathematical abilities, and connections between mathematics and music.
My wife, Bonnie, is a teacher who is currently staying home to care for our sons Ross and Luke and our daughter Grace. We are members of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Muncie, IN, where I am the choir director. We have also been active in the Muncie Civic Theater.
Click here to see my mathematical genealogy.
Click here to see a description of the undergraduate research projects that I've advised.
Click here to see a Power Point presentation on a May 2005 trip to Sri Lanka that I helped to lead.
Click here to see our theater vitae.
Click here to go to Matt's official Taylor faculty website.