The Department of Mathematics and Statistics welcomed three new assistant professors and two new Assistant Professors of Instruction in August of 2024.
Jie Min is a new Assistant Professor. Professor Min received her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2024 for her work on Time-to-Event Modeling with Bayesian Perspectives and Applications in Reliability of Artificial Intelligence Systems under the direction of Yili Hong. She has coauthored 7 published articles. Her research focuses on biostatistics, reliability analysis of artificial intelligence systems and engineering systems, survival analysis, statistical computing, and Markov chain Monte Carlo.
Tefjol Pllaha is a new Assistant Professor. Professor Pllaha received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 2019 for his work on Equivalence of Classical and Quantum Codes under the direction of Heide Gluesing-Luerssen. He has coauthored 20 published articles. He comes to 爱豆传媒 from a postdoctoral position at the University of Nebraska鈥擫incoln. His research focus is on algebraic coding theory, quantum computation, quantum error-correction, (quantum) private information retrieval, and 5G wireless communications.
S眉meyra Sakall谋 is a new Assistant Professor. Professor Sakall谋 received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota鈥擳win Cities in 2018 for her work on New Exotic Symplectic 4-Manifolds with Nonnegative Signatures and Exotic Smooth Structures on Small 4-Manifolds under the direction of Anar Akhmedov. Before joining 爱豆传媒, she had postdoctoral positions at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn and the University of Arkansas. She has (co)authored 11 articles. Her research focuses on symplectic, contact, and low-dimensional topology, and algebraic geometry.
Houston Sanders has taken a position as Assistant Professor of Instruction. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South 爱豆传媒 in 2022, with a concentration in Statistics. Upon graduation he took a Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction position in our department. His new title recognizes his success in teaching both mass-lecture introductory statistics courses and courses for the statistics major.
John Theado has taken a position as Assistant Professor of Instruction. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South 爱豆传媒 in 2019. Upon graduation he took a Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction position in our department. His new title recognizes his success in teaching mass-lecture courses in discrete mathematics.