Mathematics

Erin Griesenauer received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Iowa. Her undergraduate degree in applied mathematics is from the University of Tulsa. Her research is in the area of operator theory, and combines perspectives and techniques from abstract algebra, complex function theory, linear algebra, and differential geometry. In particular, she is interested in studying algebras of cross sections of holomorphic matrix bundles.

Nazarré Merchant received her Ph.D. in linguistics from Rutgers University. Additionally, she has a M.S. in mathematics and a M.S. in computer science both from the University of Oregon. Her undergraduate degree is from Eckerd College. Professor Merchant’s research focuses on the formal structure of linguistic theories with a particular emphasis on Optimality Theory and how the structure of a theory inherently classifies languages. Additionally, her research explores how language learners exploit grammatical structures to bootstrap language acquisition.