Notable Achievements

Three faculty members presented at MathFest, the national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, on August 2-7, 2023, in Tampa, FL. Assistant Professor of Mathematics John Ross presented “Using R Projects to Explore Regression” in the Contributed Paper Session on Activities in Statistics and Data Science. Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura co-led a four-hour Professional Enhancement Program, “Visualizing Projective Geometry Through Photographs and Perspective Drawings,” with Annalisa Crannell of Franklin & Marshall College. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton presented “Resources for Faculty and Students” in the Contributed Paper Session on Teaching and Learning of Differential Equations.

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John Ross

Assistant 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.