Eric J. Rawdon

Department of Mathematics
University of St. Thomas
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 962-5558
Email: ejrawdon [at] stthomas.edu
http://george.math.stthomas.edu/~rawdon

Education

• Ph.D., University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa (1997)
  Specialty: Topology and Computational Mathematics (Physical Knot Theory)
  Dissertation: Thickness of Polygonal Knots / Advisor: Jonathan Simon
  
  
• B.A. Cum Laude, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (1992)
  Major: Mathematics
  Concentrations: American Racial and Multicultural Studies, African Diaspora
  
  

Teaching Experience

• Professor, University of St. Thomas (2016-present)
  Associate Professor, University of St. Thomas (2009-2016)
  Assistant Professor, University of St. Thomas (2006-2009)
  Taught Calculus with Review 1, Calculus 1, Calculus 2, Multi-Variable Calculus, Finite Math, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations, Topology, Linear Algebra, and Discrete Mathematics. Research advisor to 19 students. Advised undergraduates.
  
  
• Associate Professor, Duquesne University (2005-2006)
  Assistant Professor, Tenure Track, Duquesne University (2001-2005)
  Taught Calculus 1, Honors Calculus 1, Calculus 2, Discrete Math, Numerical Analysis (undergraduate and graduate level), Linear Algebra (graduate level), Logic and Proof (graduate level), Problem Solving, Topology, and Topics in Math. Research advisor for 17 students. Mentored students.
  
  
• Assistant Professor, Tenure Track, Chatham College (1997-2001)
  Taught Calculus 1, Calculus 2, Multivariate Calculus, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Advanced Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Knot Theory and C++ Programming. Lead five students through their year-long senior tutorial projects. Advised traditional and transfer students. Lead academic courses in Eastern Europe and Greece. Oversaw adjuncts. Coordinated student graders. Head of one-person Mathematics Department.
  
  
• Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Iowa (1992-1997)
  Taught Elementary Algebra, Trigonometry, Precalculus, Engineering Calculus 1, and Engineering Calculus 2. Held recitation sessions in Calculus 1, Calculus 2, Business Calculus, and Linear Algebra.
  
  

Grants

• AIM SQuaRE Grant, New topological models of knot formation in proteins (June 10-14, 2024)
  Awarded support for one week visit to the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) to collaborate with Erica Flapan (AMS), Joanna Sulkowska (University of Warsaw), and Helen Wong (Claremont McKenna).
  
  
• University of St. Thomas Sabbatical Assistance Grant, National Football League analytics (2019-2020)
  Awarded $3056 to support participation in the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and undergraduate student research.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, RUI: Entanglements in proteins and other macromolecular chains, DMS #1720342 (2018-2021)
  Awarded $100,000 to conduct independent research and collaborative research with undergraduate students.
  
  
• University of St. Thomas Distinguished Early Career Grant, Knotting changes for glueballs and topoisomerases (2015-2017)
  Awarded six course-releases over two years to work on the project.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, RUI: Knotting transitions in physical systems, DMS #1418869 (2014-2017)
  Awarded $190,492 to conduct independent research and collaborative research with undergraduate students.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, RUI: Theory and simulations of knotting in physical and biological systems ranging from proteins to glueballs, DMS #1115722 (2011-2014)
  Awarded $176,198 to conduct independent research and collaborative research with undergraduate students.
  
  
• IMA Special Workshop Funding, Physical Knotting and Linking and its Applications (April 2010)
  Obtained funds to support grad student and post-doc participation in the IMA session and AMS meeting.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, RUI: Structure of Entanglement in Macromolecules, DMS #0810415 (2008-2011)
  Awarded $150,000 to conduct independent research and collaborative research with undergraduate students.
  
  
• Long Term Visitor, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (Spring 2008)
  Participated in yearly program Mathematics of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Supported for a two course release.
  
  
• University of St. Thomas Research Assistance Grant, Understanding the Shape of Circular Polymers (2007)
  Awarded one course-release to work on the project.
  
  
• National Science Foundation REU Supplement Grant, RUI: Characterizing Energy-Minimizing Knots, DMS #0621903 (2006)
  Awarded $28,550 to support five undergraduate students working full-time in the summer, including some travel costs.
  
  
• Supercomputing Grant, Analyzing Entanglement in Physical Systems (2005-2006)
  Awarded 4000 unit starter grant for work in collaboration with undergraduate students.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, RUI: Characterizing Energy-Minimizing Knots, DMS #0311010 (2003-2006)
  Awarded $151,303 to conduct independent research and collaborative research with undergraduate students.
  
  
• Supercomputing Grant, Massively Parallel Computation of Geometrically Optimal Knots, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (2002-2003)
  Awarded 450 unit starter grant for work in collaboration with Jason Cantarella and REU students.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, Instrumentation Grant (2003)
  Listed as senior personnel on the $325,000 grant for a large computer cluster.
  
  
• National Science Foundation Grant, RUI: Knot Complexity and the Structure of Knot Space, DMS #0074315 and DMS #0296098 (2000-2003)
  Awarded $73,202 to conduct independent research and collaborative research with undergraduate students.
  
  
• ICM Travel Grant, American Mathematical Society (2002)
  Awarded $2250 to participate in the International Congress of Mathematicians 2002 in Beijing, China.
  
  
• Mathematical Challenges Grant, American Mathematical Society (2000)
  Awarded $2000 to participate in the Mathematical Challenges for the 21st Century conference.
  
  
• Project NExT Fellow, Mathematical Association of America (1998-1999)
  Participated in sessions at the Mathfest 1998 in Toronto and the Mathfest 1999 in Providence. Topics included pedagogical issues, finding your niche, undergraduate research projects, reform calculus, and balancing research and teaching. Partially supported by Project NExT.
  
  
• Central Research Funds Award, Chatham College (1998, 1999, 2000)
  Received competitive grants for research.
  
  
• Workshop Participant, Program for Mathematics and Molecular Biology (1998)
  Participated in the two-week workshop, Mathematics and Molecular Biology: Science For The 21st Century. Participants included biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians ranging from undergraduates to professors and included some from industry. Fully funded by PMMB.
  
  
• Workshop Participant, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (1996)
  Participated in a one-week workshop on Topology and Geometry in Polymer Science followed by a one-week conference. Participants included biologists, chemists, physicists, and other mathematicians. Visit funded by IMA.
  
  

Publications

• Maciej Sikora, Erica Flapan, Helen Wong, Pawel Rubach, Wojciech Garstka, Szymon Niewieczerzal, Eric J Rawdon, and Joanna I Sulkowska. Proteins containing 6-crossing knot types and their folding pathways. Submitted, 2024.
  
  
• Pawel Dabrowski-Tumanski, Dimos Goundaroulis, Andrzej Stasiak, Eric J. Rawdon, and Joanna I. Sulkowska. Theta-curves in proteins. Protein Sci., 33(9): e4676, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.5133
  
  
• Robert G. Scharein and Eric J. Rawdon. An introduction to KnotPlot. In Renzo Ricca and Xin Liu, editors, Knotted Fields, volume 2344 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics, pages 281-318, Cham, Switzerland, 2024. Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57985-1
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon and Robert G. Scharein. Using the HOMFLY-PT polynomial to compute knot types. In Knotted Fields, volume 2344 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics, pages 319-342, Cham, Switzerland, 2024. Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57985-1
  
  
• Wanda Niemyska, Pawel Rubach, Bartosz A. Gren, Mai Lan Nguyen, Wojciech Garstka, Fernando Bruno da Silva, Eric J. Rawdon, and Joanna I. Sulkowska. AlphaKnot: server to analyze entanglement in structures predicted by AlphaFold methods. Nucleic Acids Res., 50: W44-W50, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac388
  
  
• Victor Ibanez, Samuel Gunz, Svenja Erne, Eric J. Rawdon, Garyfalia Ampanozi, Sabine Franckenberg, Till Sieberth, Raffael Affolter, Lars C. Ebert, and Akos Dobay. RiFNet: Automated rib fraction detection in postmortem computed tomography. Forensic Sci. Med. Pathol., 18: 20-29, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-021-00431-8
  
  
• Claus Ernst, Eric J. Rawdon, and Uta Ziegler. Knotting spectrum of polygonal knots in extreme confinement. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., 54: 235202, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/abf8e8
  
  
• Julien Dorier, Dimos Goundaroulis, Eric J. Rawdon, and Andrzej Stasiak. Open knots. In Colin Adam, Erica Flapan, Allison Henrich, Louis H. Kauffman, Lewis D. Ludwig, and Sam Nelson, editors, Encyclopedia of Knot Theory, pages 859-874, Boca Raton, FL, USA, 2021. Chapman and Hall/CRC. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781138298217
  
  
• Pawel Dabrowski-Tumanski, Pawel Rubach, Dimos Goundaroulis, Julien Dorier, Piotr Sulkowski, Kenneth C. Millett, Eric J. Rawdon, Andrzej Stasiak, and Joanna I. Sulkowska. KnotProt 2.0: a database of proteins with knots and other entangled structures. Nucleic Acids Res., 47(D1): D367-D375, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gky1140
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, Madeline Shogren, Emily Vecchia, and Eric J. Rawdon. Open knotting. In New Directions in Geometric and Applied Knot Theory, pages 176-204, Berlin, 2018. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110571493-009
  
  
• Yuanan Diao, Claus Ernst, Eric J. Rawdon, and Uta Ziegler. The knot spectrum of random knot spaces. In New Directions in Geometric and Applied Knot Theory, pages 205-237, Berlin, 2018. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110571493-010
  
  
• Yuanan Diao, Claus Ernst, Eric J. Rawdon, and Uta Ziegler. Average crossing number and writhe of knotted random polygons in confinement. React. Funct. Polym., 131: 430-444, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2018.07.028
  
  
• Yuanan Diao, Claus Ernst, Eric J. Rawdon, and Uta Ziegler. Total curvature and total torsion of knotted random polygons in confinement. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., 51: 154002, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aab1ed
  
  
• Yuanan Diao, Claus Ernst, Eric J. Rawdon, and Uta Ziegler. Relative frequencies of alternating and non-alternating prime knots and composite knots in random knot spaces. Experiment. Math., 27(4): 454-471, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/10586458.2017.1320239
  
  
• Jason Cantarella, Allison Henrich, Elsa Magness, Oliver O'Keefe, Kayla Perez, Eric J. Rawdon, and Briana Zimmer. Knot fertility and lineage. J. Knot Theory Ramifications, 26(13): 1750093, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218216517500936
  
  
• Pawel Dabrowski-Tumanski, Aleksandra Jarmolinska, Wanda Niemyska, Eric Rawdon, Kenneth Millett, and Joanna Sulkowska. LinkProt: A database collecting information about biological links. Nucleic Acids Res., 45(D1): D243-D249, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw976
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon, Julien Dorier, Dusan Racko, Kenneth C. Millett, and Andrzej Stasiak. How topoisomerase IV can efficiently unknot and decatenate negatively supercoiled DNA molecules without causing their torsional relaxation. Nucleic Acids Res., 44(10): 4528-4538, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw311
  
  
• David A. B. Hyde, Joshua Henrich, Eric J. Rawdon, and Kenneth C. Millett. Knotting fingerprints resolve knot complexity and knotting pathways in ideal knots. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 27: 354112, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/27/35/354112
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon, Kenneth C. Millett, and Andrzej Stasiak. Subknots in ideal knots, random knots, and knotted proteins. Sci. Rep., 5: 8928, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep08928
  
  
• Youngsik Huh, Sungjong No, Seungsang Oh, and Eric J. Rawdon. Link lengths and their growth powers. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., 48(3): 035202, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/48/3/035202
  
  
• Michal Jamroz, Wanda Niemyska, Eric J. Rawdon, Andrzej Stasiak, Kenneth C. Millett, Piotr Sulkowski, and Joanna I. Sulkowska. KnotProt: a database of proteins with knots and slipknots. Nucleic Acids Res., 43(D1): D306-D314, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gku1059
  
  
• Roman V. Buniy, Jason Cantarella, Thomas W. Kephart, and Eric J. Rawdon. The spectrum of tightly knotted flux tubes in QCD. J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., 544: 012025, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/544/1/012025
  
  
• Yuanan Diao, Claus Ernst, Anthony Montemayor, Eric J. Rawdon, and Uta Ziegler. The knot spectrum of confined random equilateral polygons. Mol. Based Math. Biol., 2: 19-33, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2478/mlbmb-2014-0002
  
  
• Roman V. Buniy, Jason Cantarella, Thomas W. Kephart, and Eric J. Rawdon. Tight knot spectrum in QCD. Phys. Rev. D., 89: 054513, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.054513
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon. Knotted arcs in open chains, closed chains, and proteins. Oberwolfach Reports, 10(2): 1343-1344, 2013. https://doi.org/10.14760/OWR-2013-22
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon, Kenneth C. Millett, Joanna I. Sulkowska, and Andrzej Stasiak. Knot localization in proteins. Biochem. Soc. Trans., 41(2): 538-541, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20120329
  
  
• Kenneth C. Millett, Eric J. Rawdon, Andrzej Stasiak, and Joanna I. Sulkowska. Identifying knots in proteins. Biochem. Soc. Trans., 41(2): 533-537, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20120339
  
  
• Joanna I. Sulkowska, Jeffrey K. Noel, Cesar A. Ramirez-Sarmiento, Eric J. Rawdon, Kenneth C. Millett, and Jose N. Onuchic. Knotting pathways in proteins. Biochem. Soc. Trans., 41(2): 523-527, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20120342
  
  
• Daniel A. Davis, Donna M. Pellowski, and Eric J. Rawdon. All monofilament knots assume sliding conformation in vivo. Dermatol. Surg., 39(5): 729-733, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1111/dsu.12112
  
  
• Cedric Weber, Mathias Carlen, Giovanni Dietler, Eric J. Rawdon, and Andrzej Stasiak. Sedimentation of macroscopic rigid knots and its relation to gel electrophoretic mobility of DNA knots. Sci. Rep., 3: 1091, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep01091
  
  
• Joanna I. Sulkowska, Eric J. Rawdon, Kenneth C. Millett, Jose N. Onuchic, and Andrzej Stasiak. Conservation of complex knotting and slipknotting patterns in proteins. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 109(26): E1715-E1723, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1205918109
  
  
• Jason Cantarella, Al LaPointe, and Eric J. Rawdon. Shapes of tight composite knots. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., 45: 225202, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/45/22/225202
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon, Kenneth C. Millett, Vy T. Tran, and Andrzej Stasiak. Cumulative shapes of knotted polymers. Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl., 191: 165-171, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1143/PTPS.191.165
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon. Physical knot theory: the study of sizes and shapes of polymers. In Louis H. Kauffman, Sofia Lambropoulou, Slavik Jablan, and Jozef H. Prztycki, editors, Introductory Lectures on Knot Theory, volume 46 of Ser. Knots Everything, pages 457-481, Singapore, 2011. World Sci. Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/7784
  
  
• Ted Ashton, Jason Cantarella, Michael Piatek, and Eric J. Rawdon. Knot tightening by constrained gradient descent. Experiment. Math., 20(1): 57-90, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1080/10586458.2011.544581
  
  
• Kenneth C. Millett, Eric J. Rawdon, Vy T. Tran, and Andrzej Stasiak. Symmetry-breaking in cumulative measures of shapes of polymer models. J. Chem. Phys., 133(15): 154113, 2010. Also cross-listed in the Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research in the November 1, 2010 issue (volume 20, issue 9). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3495482
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon and Joseph Worthington. Error analysis of the Minimum Distance Energy of a polygonal knot and the Moebius Energy of an approximating curve. J. Knot Theory Ramifications, 19(8): 975-1000, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218216510008303
  
  
• Davide Demurtas, Arnaud Amzallag, Eric J. Rawdon, John H. Maddocks, Jacques Dubochet, and Andrzej Stasiak. Bending modes of DNA directly addressed by cryo-electron microscopy of DNA minicircles. Nucleic Acids Res., 37(9): 2882-2893, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkp137
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon, John C. Kern, Michael Piatek, Patrick Plunkett, Andrzej Stasiak, and Kenneth C. Millett. Shapes of knotted cyclic polymers. Bussei Kenkyu, 92(1): 32-37, 2009. https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2433/169124
  
  
• Kenneth C. Millett, Patrick Plunkett, Michael Piatek, Eric J. Rawdon, and Andrzej Stasiak. Effect of knotting on polymer shapes and their enveloping ellipsoids. J. Chem. Phys., 130(16): 165104, 2009. Also cross-listed in the Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research in the May 1, 2009 issue (volume 17, issue 9). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3117923
  
  
• Eric Rawdon, John Kern, Michael Piatek, Patrick Plunkett, Andrzej Stasiak, and Kenneth Millett. Effect of knotting on the shape of polymers. Macromolecules, 41(21): 8281-8287, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1021/ma801389c
  
  
• Eric Rawdon, Akos Dobay, John Kern, Kenneth Millett, Michael Piatek, Patrick Plunkett, and Andrzej Stasiak. Scaling behavior and equilibrium lengths of knotted polymers. Macromolecules, 41(12): 4444-4451, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1021/ma8000803
  
  
• Kenneth C. Millett, Michael Piatek, and Eric J. Rawdon. Polygonal knot space near ropelength-minimized knots. J. Knot Theory Ramifications, 17(5): 601-631, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218216508006282
  
  
• Patrick Plunkett, Michael Piatek, Akos Dobay, John Kern, Kenneth Millett, Andrzej Stasiak, and Eric Rawdon. Total curvature and total torsion of knotted polymers. Macromolecules, 40(10): 3860-3867, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1021/ma0627673
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon and Jonathan K. Simon. Polygonal approximation and energy of smooth knots. J. Knot Theory Ramifications, 15(4): 429-451, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218216506004543
  
  
• Jason Cantarella, Michael Piatek, and Eric Rawdon. Visualizing the tightening of knots. In VIS '05: Proceedings of the 16th IEEE Visualization 2005 (VIS'05), pages 575-582, Washington, DC, USA, 2005. IEEE Computer Society. https://doi.org/10.1109/VISUAL.2005.1532844
  
  
• Jorge Alberto Calvo, Kenneth C. Millett, Eric J. Rawdon, and Andrzej Stasiak, editors, Physical and Numerical Models in Knot Theory, volume 36 of Ser. Knots Everything, Singapore, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1142/5766
  
  
• Kenneth C. Millett and Eric J. Rawdon. Universal characteristics of polygonal knot probabilities. In Jorge Alberto Calvo, Kenneth C. Millett, Eric J. Rawdon, and Andrzej Stasiak, editors, Physical and Numerical Models in Knot Theory, volume 36 of Ser. Knots Everything, pages 247-274, Singapore, 2005. World Sci. Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/5766
  
  
• Justyna Baranska, Piotr Pieranski, and Eric J. Rawdon. Ropelength of tight polygonal knots. In Jorge Alberto Calvo, Kenneth C. Millett, Eric J. Rawdon, and Andrzej Stasiak, editors, Physical and Numerical Models in Knot Theory, volume 36 of Ser. Knots Everything, pages 293-321, Singapore, 2005. World Sci. Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/5766
  
  
• Justyna Baranska, Piotr Pieranski, Sylwester Przybyl, and Eric J. Rawdon. Length of the tightest trefoil knot. Phys. Rev. E, 70(5): 051810, 2004. Also cross-listed in the Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research in the December 1, 2004 issue (volume 8, issue 11). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.051810
  
  
• Gregory Buck and Eric J. Rawdon. Role of flexibility in entanglement. Phys. Rev. E, 70(1): 011803, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.011803
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon. Can computers discover ideal knots?. Experiment. Math., 12(3): 287-302, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1080/10586458.2003.10504499
  
  
• Kenneth C. Millett and Eric J. Rawdon. Energy, ropelength, and other physical aspects of equilateral knots. J. Comput. Phys., 186(2): 426-456, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9991(03)00026-3
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon and Robert G. Scharein. Upper bounds for equilateral stick numbers. In Jorge Alberto Calvo, Kenneth C. Millett, and Eric J. Rawdon, editors, Physical knots: knotting, linking, and folding geometric objects in R^3 (Las Vegas, NV, 2001), volume 304 of Contemp. Math., pages 55-75, Providence, RI, 2002. Amer. Math. Soc.. https://doi.org/10.1090/conm/304
  
  
• Jorge Alberto Calvo, Kenneth C. Millett, and Eric J. Rawdon, editors, Physical knots: knotting, linking, and folding geometric objects in R^3, volume 304 of Contemporary Mathematics, Providence, RI, 2002. Papers from the AMS Special Session on Physical Knotting and Unknotting held in Las Vegas, NV, April 21--22, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1090/conm/304
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon and Jonathan Simon. Moebius energy of thick knots. Topology Appl., 125(1): 97-109, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-8641(01)00263-2
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon. Approximating smooth thickness. J. Knot Theory Ramifications, 9(1): 113-145, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218216500000062
  
  
• R. A. Litherland, J. Simon, O. Durumeric, and E. Rawdon. Thickness of knots. Topology Appl., 91(3): 233-244, 1999. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-8641(97)00210-1
  
  
• Eric J. Rawdon. Approximating the thickness of a knot. In A. Stasiak, V. Katritch, and L. H. Kauffman, editors, Ideal knots, volume 19 of Ser. Knots Everything, pages 143-150, Singapore, 1998. World Sci. Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1142/3843
  
  

Research Presentations

Invited Talks

• "Some applications of knot theory in biology and physics". UnKnot V Conference, Seattle, WA (July 2024).
  
  
• "Knot data". Special Session on Applied Knot Theory, Central Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Omaha, NE (October 2023).
  
  
• "Petal knots through 15 petals". Special Session on Applied Knot Theory, Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Chattanooga, TN (October 2022).
  
  
• "Accumulated knot probability". Novel Mathematical Methods in Material Science: Applications to Biomaterials, Banff International Research Station (held virtually), Banff, Canada (June 2021).
  
  
• "Open linking". Special Session on Applied Knot Theory, Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society (held virtually), Chattanooga, TN (October 2020).
  
  
• "Knotting in glueballs and proteins". Beijing University of Technology School on Knotted Fields, Beijing, China (September 2019).
  
  
• "Some applications of knot theory in the sciences". UnKnot IV Conference, Seattle, WA (July 2019).
  
  
• "Knotting in confinement". Polymers Meet Topology, Tokyo, Japan (January 2019).
  
  
• "Knots in extreme confinement". Special Session on Mathematical Methods for the Study of the Three Dimensional Structure of Biopolymers, Western Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, San Francisco, CA (October 2018).
  
  
• "How well do open knot measurements on subarcs predict the knotting of a closed curve". Special Session on Applications of Knot Theory to Physical Sciences, 33rd Summer Conference on Topology and its Applications, Bowling Green, KY (July 2018).
  
  
• "Average crossing number and writhe of knotted random polygons in confinement". Special Session on Topology of Biopolymers, Eastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Boston, MA (April 2018).
  
  
• "Knotting in open subarcs of closed knots". The Geometry and Topology of Knotting and Entanglement in Proteins, Casa Matematica Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico (November 2017).
  
  
• "Knotting transitions: the action of topoisomerase IV and glueball decay". Knots and Polymers: Aspects of topological entanglement in DNA, proteins and graph-shaped polymers, Tokyo, Japan (August 2017).
  
  
• "Unknotting and unlinking DNA via topoisomerase IV". Special Session on Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Charleston, SC (March 2017).
  
  
• "Introduction to the study of entanglement in nature". Computational and Structural Biology, European Molecular Biology Organization Workshop, Serock, Poland (March 2017).
  
  
• "Supercoiling can help type II topoisomerases to unknot and unlink DNA". Special Session on Knotting in Physical Systems, Central Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Minneapolis, MN (October 2016).
  
  
• "Really small knots: the action of topoisomerase IV and glueball decay". Workshop on Knots and Links in Biological and Soft Matter Systems, International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy (September 2016).
  
  
• "How topoisomerase IV can efficiently unknot and decatenate negatively supercoiled DNA molecules". Poster session, Gordon Conference on DNA Topoisomerases in Biology & Medicine, Newry, ME (August 2016).
  
  
• "Open knots and knots in knots". UnKnot III Conference, Granville, OH (July 2016).
  
  
• "Subknots in closed knots, open knots, and proteins". Special Session on Algebraic and Combinatorial Structures in Knot Theory, Western Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Fullerton, CA (October 2015).
  
  
• "Can supercoiling lead to efficient type II topoisomerase unknotting". DNA topoisomerases, DNA topology and human health, European Molecular Biology Organization Workshop, Les Diablerets, Switzerland (September 2015).
  
  
• "What knots lurk inside other knots". Geometric Energies with Links to Applications, Topology and Open problems, Basel, Switzerland (September 2015).
  
  
• "What knots lurk inside other knots". Minisymposium on Combinatorics, Topology and Statistical Mechanics of Polymer Models, CanaDAM, Saskatoon, Canada (June 2015).
  
  
• "What knots lurk inside other knots". Special Session on Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Greensboro, NC (November 2014).
  
  
• "What knots lurk inside other knots". Special Session on Applications of Knot Theory to the Entanglement of Biopolymers, Western Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, San Francisco, CA (October 2014).
  
  
• "Knotting in subchains of proteins and other entangled chains". Significance of Knotted Structures for Function of Proteins and Nucleic Acids, Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting, Warsaw, Poland (September 2014).
  
  
• "Knotting in open chains, closed chains, and proteins". Minisymposium on Topological Modeling of Biomolecules, SIAM Conference on the Life Sciences, Charlotte, NC (August 2014).
  
  
• "Subknots in closed chains". Thematic session on Biopolymer Entanglements, Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society 2014 Annual Meeting, Saskatoon, Canada (June 2014).
  
  
• "Knotted open chains in polymer models". Combinatorial applications to biology, chemistry and physics, Saskatoon, Canada (June 2014).
  
  
• "Subknots in closed chains". Session on Polymer Models and Combinatorics, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Conference on Discrete Mathematics, Minneapolis, MN (June 2014).
  
  
• "Subknotting in closed chains". Special Session on Physical Knots, honoring the retirement of Jonathan K. Simon, Western Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Albuquerque, NM (April 2014).
  
  
• "Knotting of open chains, closed chains and proteins". Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach program on Geometric Knot Theory, Oberwolfach, Germany (May 2013).
  
  
• "Knotting of open chains, closed chains and proteins". Topological Aspects of DNA Function and Protein Folding, Newton Institute program Topological Dynamics in the Physical and Biological Sciences, Cambridge, England (September 2012).
  
  
• "Knotting in open strings". UnKnot II Conference, Granville, OH (July 2012).
  
  
• "Knotted open chains". Means, Methods and Results in the Statistical Mechanics of Polymeric Systems, Toronto, Canada (June 2012).
  
  
• "Knotted open chains". Special Session on Knotting in Linear and Ring Polymer Models, Western Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Honolulu, HI (March 2012).
  
  
• "Knotted arcs". Special Session on Geometric Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Winston-Salem, NC (September 2011).
  
  
• "Knotted arcs". Knots and Links: from Form to Function as a part of the 2011 program on Knots and Links: from Theory to Applications at Centro di Ricerca Matematica Ennio De Giorgi, Pisa, Italy (July 2011).
  
  
• "Knotted arcs in polymer models". Numerical Knots: Models and Simulations as a part of the 2011 program on Knots and Links: from Theory to Applications at Centro di Ricerca Matematica Ennio De Giorgi, Pisa, Italy (June 2011).
  
  
• "Length and shape of minimal knotted arcs". Topological Problems in Molecular Biology Workshop, Central Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Iowa City, IA (March 2011).
  
  
• "Symmetry-breaking in cumulative measures of shapes of polymer models". Statistical Physics and Topology of Polymers with Ramifications to Structure and Function of DNA and Proteins, Kyoto, Japan (August 2010).
  
  
• "Computing tight knots and links". National CSUMS Conference, Saint Paul, MN (July 2010).
  
  
• "Symmetry-breaking in cumulative measures of shapes of polymer models". Special Session on Physical Knotting and Linking and its Applications, Central Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Saint Paul, MN (April 2010).
  
  
• "Taming random knots". CAM Colloquium, Saint Paul, MN (October 2009).
  
  
• "Taming random knots". UnKnot Conference, Granville, OH (July 2009).
  
  
• "Shapes of knotted polymers". Workshop on Applications of Analysis and Topology, Eau Claire, WI (July 2009).
  
  
• "Physical knots". International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy (May 2009).
  
  
• "Size and shape of knotted polymers". San Francisco International Conference on DNA Topology, San Francisco, CA (April 2009).
  
  
• "Size and shape of knotted polymers". Focus Session on Knots and Loops in Biomolecules, American Physical Society Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA (March 2009).
  
  
• "The effect of knotting on the size and shape of polymers". Special Session on Knotting and Linking of Macromolecules, Western Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Vancouver, Canada (October 2008).
  
  
• "The effect of knotting on the size and shape of polymers". Knots and Soft Matter Physics: Topology of Polymers and Related Topics in Physics, Mathematics and Biology, Kyoto, Japan (August 2008).
  
  
• "The effect of knotting on the size of polymers". Knots and Macromolecules, Venice, Italy (March 2008).
  
  
• "Asphericity of random equilateral polygons". Special Session on Physical Knots and Links, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Murfreesboro, TN (November 2007).
  
  
• "Equilibrium lengths of random equilateral polygons". Mathematics of Knotting and Linking in Polymer Physics and Molecular Biology, Banff International Research Station, Banff, Canada (May 2007).
  
  
• "Moebius energy of smooth knots inscribed in polygons". Special session on Physical Knotting and Linking, Central Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Cincinnati, OH (October 2006).
  
  
• "Tight knots and links". Special session on Physical Knots, MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• "Hydrodynamics of ideal knots". Special session on Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Bowling Green, KY (March 2005).
  
  
• "Equilibrium lengths of random equilateral knots". Special session on Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Bowling Green, KY (March 2005).
  
  
• "Introduction to ropelength of knots and links". Workshop on Random Knots, Tokyo, Japan (February 2005).
  
  
• "Upper bounds for the minimum ropelength of knots". Special session on Knots and Macromolecules, Eastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Pittsburgh, PA (November 2004).
  
  
• "Polygonal knot space near ropelength-minimized knots". Special session on Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Tallahassee, FL (March 2004).
  
  
• "Tying knots with stiff rope". Special session on Knots, Links, and Embedded Graphs, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Chapel Hill, NC (October 2003).
  
  
• "Polygonal ropelength". Conference on Knots, Random Walks and Biomolecules as a part of the 2003 visitor program in Mathematical Modeling of Biomolecules at Bernoulli Institute of EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Les Diableretes, Switzerland (July 2003).
  
  
• "Computational methods for minimizing the ropelength of knots". Supercomputing Science Consortium, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (July 2003).
  
  
• "The effect of flexibility on minimum ropelength conformations". Special session on Numerical Methods, Calculations, and Simulations in Knot Theory and its Applications, Western Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, San Francisco, CA (May 2003).
  
  
• "Smooth and polygonal ropelength". Special session on Physical Knotting and Unknotting, Western Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Las Vegas, NV (April 2001).
  
  
• "The conformal energy of thick knots". Special session on Physical Knot Theory, Southeastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Charlotte, NC (October 1999).
  
  
• "Computing the thickness of polygonal knots". Conference on Computational Methods in Topology, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA (March 1997).
  
  

Contributed Talks

• "Opponent Field Goal Percentage in the NFL". SportCon, Eden Prairie, MN (February 2018).
  
  
• "Opponent Field Goal Percentage in the NFL". Midwest Sports Analytics Conference, Pella, IA (November 2017).
  
  
• "Asphericity of Random Equilateral Knots". Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, CA (January 2008).
  
  
• "Smallest Containers Enclosing Random Equilateral Polygons". Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, Minneapolis, MN (September 2007).
  
  
• "Scaling Behavior, Equilibrium Lengths, and Probabilities of Knotted Polymers". Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Antonio, TX (January 2006).
  
  
• "Upper Bounds for Equilateral Stick Numbers". Joint Mathematics Meetings, Baltimore, MD (January 2003).
  
  
• "Upper Bounds for Equilateral Stick Numbers". International Congress of Mathematicians, Beijing, China (August 2002).
  
  
• "Spatial Characteristics of Optimal Polygonal Knots". Joint Mathematics Meetings, New Orleans, LA (January 2001).
  
  
• "Thickness of Polygonal Knots". Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, CA (January 1997).
  
  

Colloquia

• University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE (October 2023)
  
  
• University of Oxford, Oxford, England (October 2021)
  
  
• University of California, Davis, Davis, CA (October 2019)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Center for Applied Mathematics Chalk Talk, Saint Paul, MN (July 2019)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Advanced Metabolism Chemistry course, Saint Paul, MN (April 2019)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Computer Science Club, Saint Paul, MN (March 2018)
  
  
• University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX (May 2017)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Computer Science Club, Saint Paul, MN (April 2017)
  
  
• Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN (February 2017)
  
  
• St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (April 2014)
  
  
• Concordia University, Saint Paul, Saint Paul, MN (March 2014)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Math Club, Saint Paul, MN (April 2013)
  
  
• University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (April 2013)
  
  
• University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland (March 2013)
  
  
• Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (December 2012)
  
  
• Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN (October 2012)
  
  
• Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, England (September 2012)
  
  
• Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY (March 2012)
  
  
• University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN (October 2011)
  
  
• Carleton College, Northfield, MN (February 2010)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Statistics Seminar, Saint Paul, MN (May 2008)
  
  
• Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, Saint Paul, MN (April 2008)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Math Club, Saint Paul, MN (April 2008)
  
  
• Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (November 2007)
  
  
• University of St. Thomas, Statistics Seminar, Saint Paul, MN (November 2006)
  
  
• University of Georgia, Athens, GA (July 2003)
  
  
• Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA (February 2002)
  
  
• University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC (October 2001)
  
  
• University of Georgia, Athens, GA (October 2001)
  
  
• Duquesne University, Department of Chemistry, Pittsburgh, PA (September 2001)
  
  
• Duquesne University, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Pittsburgh, PA (September 2001)
  
  
• St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (October 2000)
  
  
• Chatham College, Pittsburgh, PA (September 2000)
  
  
• Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA (April 2000)
  
  
• Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA (October 1999)
  
  
• Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH (June 1999)
  
  
• Marshall University, Huntington, WV (May 1999)
  
  

Other Invited Talks

• "Mentoring Undergraduate Research Discussion". Skype discussion with University of Iowa graduate students, Iowa City, IA (March 2015).
  
  
• "Job Search Discussion". Skype discussion with University of Iowa graduate students, Iowa City, IA (October 2014).
  
  
• "Physical Knots". Program for talented female high school students, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• "Physical Knots". Program for talented female high school students, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (May 2005).
  
  
• "The Shape of Space". Program for talented female high school students, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (April 2004).
  
  
• "A Module-Based Course on Current Mathematics for Science Majors". MAA Mathfest, Boulder, CO (August 2003).
  
  
• "Introduction to Polygonal Thickness". REU on Massively Parallel Computation of Geometrically Optimal Knots, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (June 2003).
  
  
• "The Shape of Space". Program for talented female high school students, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (December 2002).
  
  
• "Physical Knot Theory". Two-hour workshop at Texas Section of the MAA Spring Conference, Mesquite, TX (April 2002).
  
  
• "An Introduction to Knot Theory". Program for talented female high school students, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (December 2001).
  
  
• "Computing and Optimizing the Energies of Polygonal Knots". VIGRE Seminar, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (October 2001).
  
  
• "Project MUSE: An Interdisciplinary Program for Improving Teaching". MAA Mathfest, Madison, WI (August 2001).
  
  
• "Knots? No, What is He Really Going to Talk About?". Banquet to honor talented high school students, Evansville, IN (April 2001).
  
  

Student Project Advisor

• Sayde Jude, "Knot mosaics and their generalizations", 2022.
  
  
• Lizzie Paterson, "Knot mosaics and their generalizations", 2022.
  
  
• Maria Gratzia Indacochea Rosado, "Fast software to compute knotting in proteins and chromosomes", 2022.
  
  
• Christopher Stocken, "Fast software to compute knotting in proteins and chromosomes", 2022-2023.
  
  
• Karlyn Gahnz, "Genome entanglement", 2021.
  
  
• Matthew Wackerfuss, "Genome entanglement", 2021.
  
  
• Eric Trempe, "MLB and NFL analytics", 2020-2021.
  
  
• Laura Post, "Petaluma knots", 2020.
  
  
• Katie Breuckman, "Composite links", 2019.
  
  
• Addie McCurdy, "Petaluma knots", 2019-2022.
  
  
• Elizabeth Whalen, "Petaluma knots", 2019-2021.
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Computing knot types using neural networks", 2018-2020.
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Link classification", 2017-2020.
  
  
• Belinda Huang, "Random thick knots", 2017-2018.
  
  
• Isaac Vraspir, "Knots in tight confinement", 2017-2018.
  
  
• Samuel Murray, "Random thick knots", 2017-2018.
  
  
• Zachary Sorenson, "Knots in tight confinement", 2017-2018.
  
  
• Oliver O'Keefe, "Knotting transitions in glueballs", 2015-2017.
  
  
• Peter Wallace, "Molecular modeling of type-II topoisomerases", 2016.
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, "Measuring knotting in open chains", 2015-2016.
  
  
• Isaac Garfinkle, "Subknots of closed knots", 2015.
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "Measuring knotting in open chains", 2015-2017.
  
  
• John Wallace, "Modeling the creation of glueballs", 2014-2020.
  
  
• Lance Frazier, "Modeling the creation of glueballs", 2014-2015.
  
  
• Madeline Shogren, "Measuring knotting in open chains", 2014-2016.
  
  
• Sarah Hammad, "Measuring knotting in open chains", 2014.
  
  
• Christopher Baldwin, "Knotted proteins", 2013-2014.
  
  
• Hannah Mason, "Tight six-edge trefoil", 2013.
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni, "Knotting in open chains", 2011-2014.
  
  
• Nicole Lopez, "Knotting in open chains", 2011-2015.
  
  
• Tyler Mangan, "Knotted subarcs", 2011-2013.
  
  
• Joseph Spitzer, "Knotted subarcs", 2011-2015.
  
  
• Steven Joerger, "Aligning chains", 2011-2013.
  
  
• Yasin Dara, "Knotted proteins", 2010-2013.
  
  
• Joshua Henrich, "Tight trefoil", 2010-2012.
  
  
• Michael Dupuis, "Holding strength of knots", 2010-2012.
  
  
• Jacob Seltz, "Identifying clasps", 2010-2011.
  
  
• Brett Brakefield, "Signature curves for DNA and polymers", 2008-2009.
  
  
• Hoang Van, "Generating wormlike chains using Monte Carlo methods", 2007-2008.
  
  
• Vy Tran, "Analyzing the hedgehog method for generating random polygons", 2006-2010.
  
  
• Chase Smith, "Analyzing the symmetric energy", 2005-2006.
  
  
• Caleb Astey, "Determining the ropelength of tight links", 2004-2007.
  
  
• Matt Fredrikson, "Improving the HOMFLY calculation program", 2004-2007.
  
  
• Patrick Plunkett, "Random link analysis", 2004-2007.
  
  
• Jeromy Sivek, "Analyzing tight suture knots", 2004-2007.
  
  
• Michael Beran, "Computing the holding strength of knots", 2005-2007.
  
  
• Jason Wood, "Computing the holding strength of knots", 2005-2007.
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Parallelization and algorithm analysis in TOROS", 2001-2005.
  
  
• Lucy Spardy, "Asymptotic behavior of polygonal ropelength", 2003-2005.
  
  
• Thomas Wears, "Thickness and biarcs", 2002-2005.
  
  
• Dawn Interthal, "Measuring the breaking strength of knots", 2003-2004.
  
  
• Kevin Metz, "Database for knot data and data mining", Spring 2004.
  
  
• Lawrence Udeigwe, "Error analysis of the MD-energy of polygons and the Moebius energy of a smooth knot", Spring 2004.
  
  
• Zak Zibrat, "Error analysis of the MD-energy of polygons and the Moebius energy of a smooth knot", Spring 2004.
  
  
• James Sweeney, "A program for knot manipulation", 2001-2003.
  
  
• Holly Hickling, "The strength of mathematical knots", 2003.
  
  
• Matthew Hershberger, "Database programming for knot data", Fall 2003.
  
  
• Jennifer Lewis, "Asymptotic analysis of polygonal ropelength-minima", Spring 2003.
  
  
• Elizabeth Hill, "Measuring knot complexity using physical experiments and computer simulation", 2000-2001.
  
  
• Yuko Shimoda, "Ropelength and energy: theoretical modeling predicting physical behavior of knots", 1999-2000.
  
  
• Carmen Thomas, "Knot energy and ropelength in relation to knot mobility", 1999-2000.
  
  
• Caryn Moyle, "The battle against the millennium bug", 1998-1999.
  
  
• Sandra Downer, "The emerging science and art of fractals", 1997-1998.
  
  
• Mara Jones, "Nonlinear dynamics: the mathematics of chaos and fractals", 1997-1998.
  
  

Student Presentations

• Sayde Jude and Lizzie Paterson, "Knots from puzzle pieces", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2023).
  
  
• Sayde Jude and Lizzie Paterson, "Knots from tiles", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2022).
  
  
• Sayde Jude and Lizzie Paterson, "Knots from tiles", Center for Applied Mathematics Final Project Reports, Saint Paul, MN (August 2022).
  
  
• Sayde Jude and Lizzie Paterson, "Knots from tiles", Center for Applied Mathematics Chalk Talk, Saint Paul, MN (June 2022).
  
  
• Addie McCurdy, "Identifying knots in proteins using knot families", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2022).
  
  
• Karlyn Gahnz and Matthew Wackerfuss, "Knotting and linking in genomes", Center for Applied Mathematics Final Project Reports, Saint Paul, MN (August 2021).
  
  
• Karlyn Gahnz and Matthew Wackerfuss, "Knotting and linking in genomes", Center for Applied Mathematics Chalk Talk, Saint Paul, MN (June 2021).
  
  
• Addie McCurdy, "Finding knots in proteins", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2021).
  
  
• Eric Trempe, "The impact of NFL penalties on expected points", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2021).
  
  
• Addie McCurdy, "Finding knots in proteins", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference (held virtually), Collegeville, MN (April 2021).
  
  
• Elizabeth Whalen, "Classifying Petaluma knots", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference (held virtually), Collegeville, MN (April 2021).
  
  
• Eric Trempe, "Probability of making the NFL playoffs based on weekly records", Midwest Sport Analytics Meeting (held virtually), Pella, IA (November 2020).
  
  
• Addie McCurdy, "Exploring the garden of Petaluma knots", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2020).
  
  
• Elizabeth Whalen, "Knots on the brain: finding and identifying knots in proteins", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2020).
  
  
• Addie McCurdy, "Petaluma knots", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2020).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Techniques in classifying composite links", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2020).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Modelling tight knot decay in subatomic glueballs", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2020).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Deep learning for physical knot classification", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2020).
  
  
• Elizabeth Whalen, "Finding knots in proteins", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2020).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Using neural networks in knot theory", Center for Applied Mathematics Symposium, Saint Paul, MN (August 2019).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Tight knot decay in glueballs", UnKnot IV, Seattle, WA (July 2019).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Deep learning for physical knot classification", UnKnot IV, Seattle, WA (July 2019).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Physical knots", Center for Applied Mathematics Chalk Talk, Saint Paul, MN (July 2019).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Identifying all composite links", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2019).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Using neural networks to classify knots: Data mining and deep learning in knot theory", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2019).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Knot transitions via Langevin bridges", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2019).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Analysis and simulation of knot transitions", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2019).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Classifying knots using neural networks and machine learning", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2019).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Pursuit of All Composite Links", Student poster session, North Central Section Meeting of the MAA, Saint Paul, MN (April 2019).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Using neural networks to predict knot type", Student poster session, North Central Section Meeting of the MAA, Saint Paul, MN (April 2019).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Analysis and simulation of knot transitions", Student poster session, North Central Section Meeting of the MAA, Saint Paul, MN (April 2019).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "The journey of finding all composite links", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2018).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Analysis and simulation of knot transitions", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2018).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Knot classification using neural nets", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2018).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Analysis and simulation of knot transitions", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2018).
  
  
• Matt Ward, "Using neural networks to predict knot type", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2018).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "The journey of finding all composite links", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (July 2018).
  
  
• Belinda Huang and John Wallace, "Analyzing knot transitions", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2018).
  
  
• Zach Sorenson, "Applying neural networks to identify knot types", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2018).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Classifying composite links", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2018).
  
  
• Belinda Huang, "Analyzing knot transitions", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2018).
  
  
• Zach Sorenson, "Applying neural networks to identify knot types", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2018).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "The search for all composite links", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2018).
  
  
• Isaac Vraspir and Zach Sorenson, "Knots in tight confinement", MAA General Contributed Paper Session on Topology, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, CA (January 2018).
  
  
• Zach Sorenson and Isaac Vraspir, "Recognizing knot types using neural networks", MAA General Contributed Paper Session on Topology, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, CA (January 2018).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Classifying composite links", MAA General Contributed Paper Session on Topology, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, CA (January 2018).
  
  
• Zach Sorenson and Isaac Vraspir, "Knots in tight confinement", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2017).
  
  
• Brandon Tran, "Classifying composite links", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2017).
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "To what extent are measurements of open knotting consistent with traditional knot theory", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (June 2017).
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "How well can closure methods recover a closed knot type from open subarcs", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2017).
  
  
• Oliver O'Keefe, "Knotted glueballs", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2017).
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "To what extent are measurements of open knotting consistent with traditional knot theory", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2017).
  
  
• Oliver O'Keefe, "Subatomic knots", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Collegeville, MN (April 2017).
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "Comparing the extent to which closure methods recover the knot type of a closed knot from open subarcs", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Atlanta, GA (January 2017). Outstanding presentation award winner.
  
  
• Oliver O'Keefe, "Knotting transitions in tight knots", AMS Contributed Paper Session on Topology and Manifolds, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Atlanta, GA (January 2017).
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "To what extent does the knotting of open subarcs of a closed knot configuration predict the knot type of the configuration", AMS Contributed Paper Session on Topology and Manifolds, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Atlanta, GA (January 2017).
  
  
• Oliver O'Keefe, "Knot type changes after quantum tunneling events", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2016).
  
  
• Emily Vecchia, "Defining open knot types with closure methods", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2016).
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, "Analysis and statistical comparison of two methods for classifying knotting in open chains", UnKnot III Conference, Granville, OH (August 2016).
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, Madeline Shogren, and Emily Vecchia, "Testing methods of classifying open knotting", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2016).
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, Madeline Shogren, and Emily Vecchia, "Comparing methods of identifying knotting behavior in open chains", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2016).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Knotting changes in glueball decay", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Seattle, WA (January 2016).
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, Madeline Shogren, and Emily Vecchia, "Comparison of classification methods for open chain knots", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Seattle, WA (January 2016).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Effects of quantum events on tight knots", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2015).
  
  
• Erin Brine-Doyle, Madeline Shogren, and Emily Vecchia, "Comparison of classification methods for open chain knots", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2015).
  
  
• Madeline Shogren and Emily Vecchia, "Identifying knotting behavior in open chains", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2015).
  
  
• Isaac Garfinkle, "Comparing relations on knots", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (July 2015).
  
  
• John Wallace, "Knots as a model for glueballs", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (July 2015).
  
  
• Lance Frazier, Joseph Spitzer, and John Wallace, "First step in modeling knotted glueball creation", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2015).
  
  
• Nicole Lopez, Madeline Shogren, and Emily Vecchia, "An analysis of two methods for closing open chains and identifying their knotting behavior", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2015).
  
  
• Nicole Lopez and Madeline Shogren, "Classifying knots in open chains with random equilateral polygon closures", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2015).
  
  
• Lance Frazier, Joseph Spitzer, and John Wallace, "Coarse-grain model for knotted glueball creation", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Antonio, TX (January 2015).
  
  
• Nicole Lopez and Madeline Shogren, "Closing open knots with random equilateral polygons", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Antonio, TX (January 2015). Outstanding presentation award winner.
  
  
• Nicole Lopez, Madeline Shogren, and Joseph Spitzer, "Classifying knots in open chains with random equilateral polygon closures", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2014).
  
  
• Madeline Shogren and Joseph Spitzer, "Classifying knots in open chains", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2014).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni, Sarah Hammad, Nicole Lopez, and Madeline Shogren, "Comparative methods for the classification of knots in open chains", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2014).
  
  
• Christopher Baldwin and Joseph Spitzer, "Analyzing knotting in folded proteins", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2014).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Comparing methods for classifying open chains", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Baltimore, MD (January 2014).
  
  
• Christopher Baldwin and Joseph Spitzer, "Analyzing knotting in folded proteins", Student poster session, Joint Mathematics Meetings, Baltimore, MD (January 2014).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Comparing methods for classifying open knots", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2014).
  
  
• Christopher Baldwin and Joseph Spitzer, "Knotting in folded proteins", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2013).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Comparative methods for the classification of knots in open chains", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2013).
  
  
• Christopher Baldwin and Joseph Spitzer, "Knotting in folded proteins", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2013).
  
  
• Hannah Mason and Joseph Spitzer, "Explicit characterization of tight knot configurations", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2013).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Classifying knots in open chains", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2013).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Classifying knots in open chains", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (January 2013).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Classifying open knots by random closures", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics Poster Session, Lincoln, NE (January 2013).
  
  
• Steven Joerger, Tyler Mangan, and Joseph Spitzer, "Explicit solution for tight knot configurations", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2012).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Classifying knots in open chains", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2012).
  
  
• Yasin Dara, "Database of knotting and slipknotting patterns in proteins", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2012).
  
  
• Steven Joerger, Tyler Mangan, and Joseph Spitzer, "Explicit solution for tight knot configurations", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2012).
  
  
• Elizabeth Annoni and Nicole Lopez, "Classifying knots in open chains", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2012).
  
  
• Yasin Dara, "Database of knotting and slipknotting patterns in proteins", UnKnot Conference, Granville, OH (July 2012).
  
  
• Michael Dupuis, "Can hookedness provide a path to unknotting", UnKnot Conference, Granville, OH (July 2012).
  
  
• Steven Joerger, "Explicit solution for tight knot configurations", UnKnot Conference, Granville, OH (July 2012).
  
  
• Joshua Henrich, "Sub-arc knot spectrum analysis ", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2012).
  
  
• Joshua Henrich, "Sub-arc knot spectrum analysis ", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2011).
  
  
• Joshua Henrich and Steven Joerger, "Explicit solution for tight knot configurations", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2011).
  
  
• Joshua Henrich, "Sub-arc knot spectrum analysis ", American Mathematical Society Fall Southeastern Section Meeting Poster Session, Winston-Salem, NC (September 2011).
  
  
• Joshua Henrich and Steven Joerger, "Explicit solution for tight knot configurations", American Mathematical Society Fall Southeastern Section Meeting Poster Session, Winston-Salem, NC (September 2011).
  
  
• Jacob Seltz, "Tight knot geometry and disentanglement", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (May 2011).
  
  
• Michael Dupuis, "Holding Strength of Mathematical Knots", American Mathematical Society Spring Central Section Meeting Graduate Student Poster Session, Iowa City, IA (March 2011).
  
  
• Jacob Seltz, "Unknotting DNA: A computational approach to how type-2 topoisomerase untangle knotted DNA", American Mathematical Society Spring Central Section Meeting Graduate Student Poster Session, Iowa City, IA (March 2011).
  
  
• Yasin Dara, "Modeling of dynamic protein strands using knot theory and rendering", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2010).
  
  
• Michael Dupuis, "Holding strength of mathematical knots", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2010).
  
  
• Jacob Seltz, "Unknotting DNA: A computational approach to how type-2 topoisomeres untangle knotted DNA", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2010).
  
  
• Vy Tran, "Vertex distributions in families of six edge polygons", MAA North Central Section Meeting, Saint Paul, MN (April 2010).
  
  
• Vy Tran, "Vertex distributions in families of six edge polygons", IMA special workshop poster session on Physical Knotting and Linking and its Applications, Minneapolis, MN (April 2010).
  
  
• Brett Brakefield, "Minumum ropelength of (2,p) torus knots", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2009).
  
  
• Eric Brost, "The unknotting number", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2009).
  
  
• Vy Tran, "Shape distribution of six-edge polygons", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2009).
  
  
• Joseph Tursich, "Generating twisted clasps", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2009).
  
  
• Maria Fischer, "Tightly twisted tangles", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (October 2009).
  
  
• Vy Tran, "The distribution of vertices in families of six edge polygons", National CSUMS Student Research Conference, Saint Paul, MN (August 2009).
  
  
• Brett Brakefield, "Random knots and polymers", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2008).
  
  
• Vy Tran, "Graphical models of random knot generation", Inquiry at UST Poster Session, Saint Paul, MN (September 2007).
  
  
• Vy Tran, "Random knot generation", Center for Applied Mathematics Student Talk Sessions, Saint Paul, MN (August 2007).
  
  
• Patrick Plunkett, "Curvature and torsion in random knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Erie, PA (April 2007).
  
  
• Caleb Astey, "Minimal knots on three dimensional graph paper", MAA MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• Matthew Fredrikson, "HOMFLY calculation: a comparison of new techniques", MAA MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• Patrick Plunkett, "Small enclosing ellipsoids of random knots", MAA MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• Jeromy Sivek, "The Symmetric Energy of knots and polygonal approximations", MAA MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• Chase Smith, "Symmetric Energy of smooth knots inscribed in polygons", MAA MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• Jason Wood, "The physics of the holding strength of knots", MAA MathFest, Knoxville, TN (August 2006).
  
  
• Jeromy Sivek, "Holding strength of tight knots", Departmental Seminar, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• Caleb Astey, "Scraping for 11 crossing links", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• Michael Beran, "Modeling tension distribution within a polygonal knot", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• Matt Fredrikson, "New techniques for fast calculation of the HOMFLY polynomial", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• Patrick Plunkett, "Probabilities of random links", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• Jason Wood, "Analytical study of tension in knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (April 2006).
  
  
• Pat Plunkett, "Detecting symmetry in knots", Departmental Seminar, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (December 2005).
  
  
• Lucy Spardy, "Describing the shape of ropelength-minimized knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Tom Wears, "Warning: biarc construction ahead, smooth curves expected shortly", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Visualizing the tightening flow of physical knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Caleb Astey, "Methodology in creation of trivially linked tight knots and its applications on the prediction of the existence of new gluon balls", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Pat Plunkett, "Detecting symmetry in knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Jeromy Sivek, "Volumes of tight sutures", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Matt Fredrikson, "Improving computational methods for calculating the HOMFLY polynomial", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Slippery Rock, PA (April 2005).
  
  
• Lucy Spardy, "Describing the shape of ropelength-minimized knots", Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Lincoln, NE (February 2005).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Numerics issues in ropelength minimization", Special Session on Knots and Macromolecules, Eastern Section Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Pittsburgh, PA (November 2004).
  
  
• Dawn Interthal, "The physics of knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Buckhannon, WV (March 2004).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Beyond secure shoelaces: tightening mathematical knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Buckhannon, WV (March 2004).
  
  
• Lucy Spardy, "Describing the shape of ropelength-minimized knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Buckhannon, WV (March 2004).
  
  
• Tom Wears, "A brief introduction to thickness and ropelength of mathematical knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Buckhannon, WV (March 2004).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Optimization in knot space", guest lecture in CPMA 571 graduate course on Optimization, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (March 2004).
  
  
• Tom Wears, "A brief introduction to thickness and ropelength of mathematical knots", guest lecture to combined class of MATH 315 (Linear Algebra and Differential Equations) and MATH 420 (Introduction to Complex Variables), Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (March 2004).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Implementing the gradient of ropelength", Special session on Knot Theory and its Applications, Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Tallahassee, FL (March 2004).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Implementing the gradient of ropelength", Pi Mu Epsilon Conference, Youngstown, OH (February 2004).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Evolving ideal knots, Part II", MAA MathFest, Boulder, CO (August 2003).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Getting knotty in parallel", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, DuBois, PA (April 2003).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "A gradient flow for the rope length of knotted strings", Joint Mathematics Meeting, Baltimore, MD (January 2003).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "High performance shoelace tightening", Departmental colloquium, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (October 2002).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "High performance shoelace tightening", MAA MathFest, Burlington, VT (August 2002). Student presenter award winner.
  
  
• Leanne Hindman, "The breaking strength of knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, West Liberty, WV (April 2002).
  
  
• Michael Piatek, "Tying your shoelaces with twenty computers", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, West Liberty, WV (April 2002).
  
  
• James Sweeney, "Knots and computer graphics", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, West Liberty, WV (April 2002).
  
  
• Leanne Hindman and Jolene Riches, "Measuring knot complexity with physical experiments", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA (April 2001).
  
  
• Elizabeth Hill and Amanda Newport, "Understanding the complexity of knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA (April 2001).
  
  
• Yuko Shimoda and Carmen Thomas, "Physical experiments on knots", MAA Allegheny Mountain Section Meeting, Meadville, PA (April 2000).
  
  

Masters Thesis Advisor

• Joseph Worthington, "Error Bounds Between the Minimum Distance Energy of an Equilateral Knot and the Moebius Energy of an Inscribed Smooth Knot", 2005.
  
  

Scholarly Activities

• Special Session Co-Organizer, Central section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Omaha, NE (October 2023)
  Co-organizer of special session on Applied Knot Theory.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Southeastern section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Chattanooga, TN (October 2022)
  Co-organizer of special session on Applied Knot Theory.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Southeastern section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Chattanooga, TN (October 2020)
  Co-organizer of special session on Applied Knot Theory (held virtually due to COVID).
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Southeastern section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Charlottesville, VA (March 2020)
  Co-organizer of special session on Knot Theory and its Applications (canceled due to COVID).
  
  
• Conference Co-Organizer, Casa Matematica Oaxaca (November 2017)
  Co-organizer of one-week workshop on The Geometry and Topology of Knotting and Entanglement in Proteins.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Central section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Minneapolis, MN (October 2016)
  Co-organizer of special session on Knotting in Physical Systems, in celebration of Kenneth C. Millett's 75th birthday.
  
  
• Blog post, Pi, Pie, Knotted Structures, and Biophysics (March 2015)
  https://biophysicalsociety.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/pi-pie-knotted-structures-and-biophysics/
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Western section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Albuquerque, NM (April 2014)
  Co-organizer of special session on Physical Knots, Honoring the Retirement of Jonathan K. Simon.
  
  
• Conference Co-Organizer, Banff International Research Station (November 2013)
  Co-organizer of one-week workshop on Entanglement in Biology; How Nature Controls the Topology of Proteins and DNA.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Western section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Honolulu, HI (March 2012)
  Co-organizer of special session on Knotting in Linear and Ring Polymer Models.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Southeastern section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Winston-Salem, NC (September 2011)
  Co-organizer of special session on Geometric Knot Theory and its Applications.
  
  
• Panelist on Interviewing for a Job, Joint Math Meetings, New Orleans, LA (January 2011)
  Discussed how to interview for a mathematics faculty position in a session sponsored by the Young Mathematicians Network and the Mathematics Association of America.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Joint Math Meetings, New Orleans, LA (January 2011)
  Co-organizer of special session on Measures of Entanglement of Macromolecules and Their Applications.
  
  
• Conference Co-Organizer, MAA North Central section meeting (April 2010)
  Co-organizer of two-day meeting.
  
  
• Special Workshop Co-Organizer, IMA special workshop, Minneapolis, MN (April 2010)
  Co-organizer of afternoon talks and poster session.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Central section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, St. Paul, MN (April 2010)
  Co-organizer of special session on Physical Knotting and Linking and its Applications.
  
  
• Conference Co-Organizer, Banff International Research Station (January 2010)
  Co-organizer of one-week workshop on Mathematics and Physics of Polymer Entanglement: Emerging Concepts and Biomedical Applications
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Western section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Vancouver, Canada (October 2008)
  Co-chair of special session on Knotting and Linking in Macromolecules.
  
  
• Panelist on Grant Writing, Joint Math Meetings, Project NExT Session, San Diego, CA (January 2008)
  Discussed experience with grant writing.
  
  
• Conference Co-Organizer, Banff International Research Station (May 2007)
  Co-organizer of one-week workshop on The Mathematics of Knotting and Linking in Polymer Physics and Molecular Biology.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Central section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Cincinnati, OH (October 2006)
  Co-chair of special session on Physical Knotting and Linking.
  
  
• Content Expert, Westat National Science Foundation Grant, Denver, CO (November 2005-present)
  Assessed teaching trainer program.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Eastern section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Pittsburgh, PA (November 2004)
  Co-chair of special session on Knots and Macromolecules.
  
  
• Panelist on Undergraduate Research, MAA Allegheny Mountain section meeting, Pittsburgh, PA (October 2004)
  Discussed designing and implementing undergraduate research programs at non-Ph.D. granting institutions.
  
  
• High School Science Fair Advisor, Andrew Meyer (2003-2004)
  Advised project on tying knots with stiff rope. Andrew was chosen as the Florida state representative for mathematics from his region. He was awarded a prize for the most unique project at the regional fair and given honorable mention at the state fair.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Western section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, San Francisco, CA (May 2003)
  Co-chair of special session on Numerical Methods, Calculations, and Simulations in Knot Theory and its Applications.
  
  
• Contributed Papers Session Co-Organizer, Mathematical Association of America, Mathfest, Madison, WI (August 2001)
  Co-chair of session on Innovative Program to Improve the Teaching of Mathematics.
  
  
• Special Session Co-Organizer, Western section meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Las Vegas, NV (April 2001)
  Co-chair of special session on Physical Knotting and Unknotting.
  
  
• Summer Post-Doc, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (June, July 1998, June 1999, June 2000)
  Analyzed knot energies, thickness, and knot symmetries. Analyzed viability of catheter use for treating aorta aneurysms. Salary supported by NSF.
  
  
• Conference Participant, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (October 1999)
  Participated in two-day workshop, Transformation through Academic Restructuring.
  
  
• Workshop Participant, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Pittsburgh, PA (January 1999)
  Participated in the three-day workshop, Parallel Processing on CRAY MPP Systems.
  
  
• Book Reviewer (1999)
  Reviewed a Linear Algebra text.
  
  
• Mathematics Department Summer Research Assistant, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (1996, 1997)
  Conducted research with Jonathan Simon on knot energies.
  
  
• Topology Seminar Speaker, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (1995-1997)
  Presented on Vassiliev Invariants, Knot Energies, and the Thickness of Knots.
  
  
• Section American Mathematical Society Meeting, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (March 1996)
  Participated in the meeting including a special session conducted on Physical Knot Theory.
  
  

Activities at Duquesne University (2001-2006)

• Advisor to Lambda Sigma (2002-2006). Awarded honor status each year.
  
  
• Participated in Commuter Student Association's PB&J lunches four times.
  
  
• Developed and taught Topics in Math course for science majors.
  
  
• Member of department's graduate admissions committee, mathematics colloquium committee, and student awards and recognition committee.
  
  
• Met with prospective students and had some attend classes.
  
  
• Recruited speakers for colloquium series and helped advertise talks.
  
  

Activities at Chatham College (1997-2001)

• Raised enrollments 75% in advanced mathematics courses.
  
  
• Served on the standing committees - Academic Policies Committee and Executive Committee.
  
  
• Served on the pro tem committees - Proficiencies Task Force, Committee to Write a New Computing Major, and Hiring Committees.
  
  
• Active in student activities including sporting events, lectures, student recruiting, first-year orientation, campus contests, and math events.
  
  

Honors and Awards

• Mentor Award, Allegheny Mountain Section of the MAA (2006)
  For mentoring undergraduate students, in particular for encouraging student participation at MAA meetings and being active in guiding undergraduate research projects.
  
  
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Iowa (1994)
  One of twenty-five $1000 cash prizes awarded campus-wide from a pool of 1300 teaching assistants.
  
  
• Tuition Fellowship, University of Iowa (1992-1995)
  
  
• Mathematics Departmental Distinction, St. Olaf College (1992)
  
  
• American Mathematical Society Student Membership Prize, St. Olaf College (1991)
  
  

Course Development

• Developed and taught Topics in Math (with two colleagues), a module-based course on applications of mathematics in the sciences required of all science majors at Duquesne.
  
  
• Enhanced and taught the Problem-Solving Seminar, a one-credit course for mathematics majors at Duquesne.
  
  
• Integrated Maple and Blackboard into several classes at Chatham.
  
  
• Integrated use of graphing calculators into Calculus 1, Calculus 2, and Linear Algebra in 1998-1999 at Chatham.
  
  

Computer Skills

• Run computations on a 40-node departmental cluster.
  
  
• Utilize Maple and MATLAB in Multivariate Calculus, Linear Algebra, and personal research.
  
  
• Program in UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh environments.
  
  
• Write Perl scripts to automate data collection and web page production.
  
  
• Compose documents using LaTeX.
  
  
• Wrote program to implement research on SGI and Linux workstations in C++.
  
  
• Taught an introductory C++ programming course.
  
  
• Attended workshop on the use of SYBYL, a molecular modeling application for the SGI workstations.
  
  
• Studied programming, data structures, and algorithms.
  
  

Affiliations

• American Mathematical Society
  
  
• Mathematical Association of America
  
  
• Project Kaleidoscope
  
  
• Project NExT
  
  

This cv was generated using a series of Perl scripts I wrote. If you are interested in using the scripts, let me know. It might take a little hacking on your part to get everything the way you like it, but it beats doing it from scratch. It also creates a LaTeX cv with the same information. Basically, to update your cv you just need to update a few files and the rest happens magically (including the web linking).