Notable Achievements

Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr, along with colleagues she met while presenting on a panel at MathFest 2019, published an article titled “Domino Antimagic Squares and Rectangles” in Recreational Mathematics Magazine. The article can be found here.

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Alison Marr

Professor of Mathematics

Expertise

Graph theory, graph labeling, recreational mathematics

Alison Marr received her Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 2007, her M.S. from Texas A&M University in 2004, and her B.A. from Murray State University in 2002. Before attending Texas A&M, Marr participated in the EDGE summer program and before her senior year at Murray State participated in the Oklahoma Weather Center’s REU. She has been at Southwestern since 2007 and has served as Department Chair and co-chair of the Transforming Paideia Initiative. She teaches classes across the math curriculum from Introduction to Statistics to Calculus to Algebraic Structures. She also enjoys teaching interdisciplinary courses such as her FYS on television game shows and her team taught Global Health Paideia Seminar. 

Outside Southwestern, Marr is the current co-director of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Summer Program for women entering PhD programs in mathematics across the US. She has also been active in the inquiry-based learning community (IBL), and has served on committees for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). 

  • Biography

    Alison Marr received her Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 2007, her M.S. from Texas A&M University in 2004, and her B.A. from Murray State University in 2002. Before attending Texas A&M, Marr participated in the EDGE summer program and before her senior year at Murray State participated in the Oklahoma Weather Center’s REU. She has been at Southwestern since 2007 and has served as Department Chair and co-chair of the Transforming Paideia Initiative. She teaches classes across the math curriculum from Introduction to Statistics to Calculus to Algebraic Structures. She also enjoys teaching interdisciplinary courses such as her FYS on television game shows and her team taught Global Health Paideia Seminar. 

    Outside Southwestern, Marr is the current co-director of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Summer Program for women entering PhD programs in mathematics across the US. She has also been active in the inquiry-based learning community (IBL), and has served on committees for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). 

  • Publications

    Books

    1.  Magic Graphs with W.D. Wallis. Second Edition. Birkhauser, Boston. 2012.

    Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications

    1. “Domino Antimagic Squares and Rectangles.” with L.M. Nelsen, L.L. Nelsen, C. Osborne, and V. Vasilevska. To Appear in Recreational Mathematics Magazine.
    2. “Neighborhood Balanced Colorings of Graphs.” with B. Freyberg. Graphs and Combinatorics 40, 41 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00373-024-02766-9 
    3. “Collaboratively Re-envisioning Calculus for the Modern Student.” with J. Kilty and A. M. McAllister. MAA Notes: Justice Through the Lens of Calculus
      Framing New Possibilities for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 2023.
    4. “D-Magic Oriented Graphs.” with R. Simanjuntak. Symmetry. 13 Issue 12: 2261 (2021) https://doi.org/10.3390/sym13122261
    5. “Wheels and Deals: A First-Year Seminar on Game Shows.” MAA Notes: Mathematical Themes in a First-Year Seminar. 2021.
    6.  “Directed Zagreb Indices.” with B. M. Anthony. Graphs and Combinatorial Optimization: from Theory to Applications: CTW2020 Proceedings. Springer International Publishing. 2021

    7. “Note on In-antimagicness and Out-antimagicness of Digraphs.” with S. Arumugam, M. Baca, A. Fenovcikova and K. A. Sugeng. Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences & Cryptography. (2020)

    8. “Choose Your Own Adventure: An Analysis of Interactive Gamebooks using Graph Theory” with D. Beckelhymer (’20) and D. Adams (’21). Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. 9 Issue 2 (2019) 44–59.

    9. “Coprime and Prime Labelings of Graphs.” with A. Berliner, N. Dean, J. Hook, A. Mbirika, C. McBee. J. Integer Seq. 19 (2016), no.5, Article 16.5.8, 14 pp.

    10. “In-Magic Total Labelings of Digraphs.” with S. Ochel (’09) and B. Perez (’16). Journal of Graph Labeling. 1 Issue 2 (2015) 82–93.
    11. “Sparse Semi-Magic Squares and Labelings of Directed Graphs.” Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics. 48 (2015) 3–10.
    12. “Minimal Pancyclic Graphs.” with J.C. George and W.D. Wallis. Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing. 86 (2013).
    13. “Some Families of Fixed Points for the Eccentric Digraph Operator.” with R.T. Denman and B. M. Anthony. Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing. 78 (2011).
    14. “Magic Vertex Labelings of Directed Graphs.” International Journal of Mathematics and Computer Science 4, no. 2, (2009).
    15. “Bimagic Labelings.” with N.C.K. Phillips and W.D. Wallis. AKCE International Journal of Graphs and Combinatorics 6, no. 1, (2009).
    16. “Magic Directed Graphs.” with Gary Bloom and W.D. Wallis. Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing 65 (2008).
    17. “Graceful Labelings of Directed Graphs.” Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing 66 (2008).
    18. “Closed Neighborhood Anti-Sperner Graphs” with J.P. McSorley, T. D. Porter, and W.D. Wallis. Australasian Journal of Combinatorics 38 (2007).
    19. “On Relatively Prime Graphs” with Amy Collins and Arthur M. Hobbs. Congressus Numerantium 164 (2003).

    Peer-Reviewed Classroom Modules

    1.  “#Networks4All.” CCICADA Education Modules. Submitted.
    2. “Cryptography in Forensics.” CCICADA Education Modules. (2015). http://ccicada.org/education/ccicada-education-modules/

    Other Publications

    1.  “The PCMI Workshop for Mentors: A Weeklong Workshop on Diversity?” with A. R. Alvarez, M. Espanol, A. Faridani, C. V. Flores, J. McNulty, E. Newman, R. Nugent, A. Seneres, M. Shott, W. Y. Velez, and E. Walker. Notices of the AMS. May 2018. 
  • Presentations

    Chair of Organizing Committee for CombinaTexas 2012 held at Southwestern University

    Conference Presentations:

    International Workshop on Graph Labeling, Contribued Talk, “Magic type labelings of directed graphs”, July 2012

    Mid-West Conference on Combinatorics, Cryptography and Computing, Invited address “The Best Magic (Directed Graph) Show in Vegas”, October 2011

    International Workshop on Graph Labeling, Contributed Talk, “Some new results on labelings of directed graphs”, October 2010

    R.L. Moore Conference, Panel participant, “New Users Panel”, June 2010

    CombinaTexas, Contributed Talk “A new type of magic labeling for digraphs”, April 2010

    Mid-West Conference on Combinatorics, Cryptography and Computing, Contributed talk “Some Families of Fixed Points for the Eccentric Digraph Operator”, October 2009

    Mid-West Conference on Combinatorics, Cryptography and Computing, Contributed talk “Magic vertex labelings of directed graphs”, October 2008

    MAA Texas Section Spring Meeting, Contributed Talk “Labelings of Directed Graphs”, April 2008

    Joint Meetings of the AMS and MAA, AWM Workshop presenter “Graceful Labelings Meet Directed Graphs”, January 2008

    Joint Meetings of the AMS and MAA, Contributed Talk “Magic Labeling of Directed Graphs”, January 2007

    Mid-West Conference on Combinatorics, Cryptography and Computing, Contributed talk “Graceful labelings of directed graphs”, October 2006

    AMS Spring South Sectional Meeting, Special Session on Graph Theory “Properties of closed neighborhood anti-Sperner graphs”, April 2005

    AMS Spring Central Sectional Meeting, “Closed neighborhood anti-Sperner graphs”, March 2005

    Kentucky Section MAA Spring Conference, Contributed Talk “An Algebra of Kinship Study of the Cherokee Tribe”, April 2002

    Kentucky Section MAA Spring Conference, Contributed Talk “Games and Graphs”, April 2001

    Southern Regional Honors Conference, Contributed Talk “Squaring the Circle…Literally”, March 2002

    Southern Regional Honors Conference, Contributed Talk with Audra Jennings and Tom Cecil, March 2001

    Southern Regional Honors Conference, Contributed Talk with Audra Jennings and Tom Cecil, March 1999

    Other Presentations:

    North Lousiana Teachers’ Circle, “Graph Theory and Magic Squares”, April 2012

    Math Teachers’ Circle of Austin, “Magical Problems on Magic Squares and Magic Graphs”, February 2011

    El Dorado High School, Mathematics and Game Shows in-class presentations, March 2010

    University of Dallas Mathematics Colloquium, “A Magical Mystery Tour of Labelings”, October 2009

    EDGE Summer Program, Joint Invited Speaker for Banquet, June 2009

    Southwestern University Math Club, Participated in talks given by department members on their research, November 2008

    Texas A&M University Algebra and Combinatroics Seminar, “A Magical Tour of Various Magic-Type Labelings”, October 2008

    Southwestern University Math and Computer Science Seminar, “Something full of grace, followed by some real magic”, October 2007

    SIU Combinatorics Seminar, “Labelings of directed graphs”, August 2006

    SIU Combinatorics Seminar, “Graceful directed graphs”, March 2006

    SIU Combinatorics Seminar, “Closed neighborhood anit-Sperner graphs”, April 2005

    SIU Combinatorics Seminar, “On constant weight TSP labelings in Kn”, February 2006

    Guest lecture in abstract algebra class at Murray State University, “Good times with groups and graphs”, March 2005