Alissa Susan Crans is an American mathematician specializing in

higher-dimensional algebra In mathematics, especially ( higher) category theory, higher-dimensional algebra is the study of categorified structures. It has applications in nonabelian algebraic topology, and generalizes abstract algebra. Higher-dimensional categories A f ...

. She is a professor of mathematics at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

, and the associate director of

Project NExT National Ticketing Solution (NTS) is a public transport payment system in development for New Zealand. It is contracted to American company Cubic. It is expected to start roll out in the Canterbury region in 2024 and available nationwide by 2026 ...

, a program of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

to mentor post-doctoral mathematicians, statisticians, and mathematics teachers.

Education and career

Crans graduated

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

from the

University of Redlands The University of Redlands is a private university headquartered in Redlands, California. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Califo ...

in 1999. She earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

in 2000 and 2004 respectively. Her dissertation, ''Lie 2-Algebras'', was supervised by

John C. Baez John Carlos Baez (; born June 12, 1961) is an American mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Riverside, California, Riverside, California. He has worked o ...

. She worked as a lecturer at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

in 2002, as VIGRE Ross Assistant Professor at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

from 2005 to 2006, and as Visiting Dickson Instructor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 2008. Meanwhile she started as an assistant professor at

in 2004, and was promoted to full professor there in 2016, with another leave to work as Associate Director of Diversity and Education at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califo ...

from 2012 to 2014. She took up her position as associate director of

in 2014. She is also active as a mentor for women in mathematics, and served as member-at-large on the executive committee of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

from 2014 to 2018.

Recognition

Diamond Bar High School Diamond Bar High School (DBHS) is a public high school located in Diamond Bar, California, as part of the Walnut Valley Unified School District. Diamond Bar High School's mascot is the Brahma, and the school colors are purple and gold. Diamond Ba ...

lists Crans among their Distinguished Alumni. In 2011 the

(MAA) gave Crans their Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College/University Mathematics Faculty Member. In the same year she also won the Merten M. Hasse Prize of the MAA for her paper "Musical Actions of Dihedral Groups". She was an MAA Distinguished Lecturer in 2014, speaking about the

Catalan number In combinatorial mathematics, the Catalan numbers are a sequence of natural numbers that occur in various counting problems, often involving recursively defined objects. They are named after the French-Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Cata ...

s. The

has included her in the 2020 class of AWM Fellows for "mentoring and supporting women at Loyola Marymount and through EDGE, SMP, SPWM, and Project NExT; for her role in the Pacific Coast Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, recognized as an AMS Program That Makes a Difference". She is included in a deck of playing cards featuring notable women mathematicians published by the Association of Women in Mathematics.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crans, Alissa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians University of Redlands alumni Pomona College faculty Loyola Marymount University faculty 21st-century women mathematicians Scientists from California Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics 21st-century American women