Research

Applied mathematics encompasses mathematical modeling and the development of computational tools often motivated by some area of application in the natural or social sciences or engineering. Our vibrant group in Applied Mathematics has strong interdisciplinary connections with the schools of engineering and life sciences as well as institutes such as the Bio Design Institute, the Mayo Clinic, the Global Institute of Sustainability, and the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative. The applied math faculty is well funded through grants from NSF, NIH, defense agencies and others.

Theoretical mathematics is the study of abstract mathematical structures which form the basic framework for the rest of the mathematical sciences. In large part, theoretical mathematics is inspired by intellectual curiosity. Theoretical mathematics provides the tools for scientific discoveries in the future, often in unexpected ways.

Mathematics Education is the study of how people learn and teach mathematics meaningfully. One of its major goals is to develop theories of learning and teaching that will be foundational for strategies and curricular materials that improve the conceptual learning and use of mathematics. The math-ed group at ASU is particularly interested in mathematics learning and pedagogy at the high-school and early college levels and on the learning process in traditional, flipped class models and online settings. Content areas include precalculus, calculus, and the transition to advanced theoretical courses.

Statistics is the science of collecting data, summarizing data, making sense of data, and drawing inferences from data. With research and decisions increasingly being data-driven, basic knowledge of statistical concepts and methods is becoming more important. Our faculty members apply statistics to research in a range of fields, including functional MRI, behavioral science, epidemiology, biology, medical imaging and network theory. Statisticians are often part of larger interdisciplinary research teams because, typically, they do not have ownership of data and collaborate with researchers who do. That, in part, makes being a statistician so much fun; as already noted by John W. Tukey, statisticians “get to play in everyone's backyard.”