Notable Achievements

The Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America recently held officer elections and finalized positions for the Executive Committee. Professor and Garey Chair of Mathematics Alison Marr has been elected to serve in the three year Chair role (Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past-Chair). Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross has also been appointed as the Digital Media Editor.

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John Ross

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Expertise

Differential Geometry, Riemannian Geometry, Geometric Analysis. Minimal surfaces, Mean Curvature Flow. The mathematics of bubbles and similar surfaces.

John Ross received his PhD in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 2015 and his BA in Mathematics from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2009.

  • Biography

    John Ross received his PhD in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 2015 and his BA in Mathematics from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2009.

  • Research

    Dr. Ross’ research focuses on theory and applications of minimal surfaces and mean curvature flow. Taken together, these subjects describe how surfaces (or higher-dimensional manifolds) can evolve in time to achieve stable structures under certain constraints. The most accessible example is the creating of bubbles via soap film - a two-dimensional elastic surface that aims to minimize surface area subject to some additional structural constraint (eg. constant volume enclosure in the case of a free-floating bubble, or fixed boundary in the case of a bubble wand). The geometry of the surface with minimal surface area - or the evolution a soap film undergoes as it evolves to shrink surface area - is of broad interest to mathematicians, materials scientists, and physicists. Dr. Ross studies the differential equations that govern this process, and the connection between these equations and the underlying geometry of the surfaces.