Erica Flapan (born August 14, 1956) is an

American mathematician This is a list of American mathematicians. List * James Waddell Alexander II (1888–1971) * Stephanie B. Alexander, elected in 2014 as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to geometry, for high-quality exposition, a ...

, the Lingurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics 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 t ...

Education and career

Flapan did her undergraduate studies at

Hamilton College (New York) Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

, graduating in 1977, and went on to graduate studies at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, earning a Ph.D. in 1983 under the supervision of Daniel McMillan. After postdoctoral studies at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

and the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

she joined the Pomona faculty in 1986.Curriculum vitae
retrieved 2013-01-22. Flapan's research is in

low-dimensional topology In mathematics, low-dimensional topology is the branch of topology that studies manifolds, or more generally topological spaces, of four or fewer dimensions. Representative topics are the structure theory of 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds, knot th ...

and

knot theory In the mathematical field of topology, knot theory is the study of mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot ...

Books

Flapan is the author or coauthor of books including: *'' When Topology Meets Chemistry: A Topological Look at Molecular Chirality'' (Cambridge University Press and Mathematical Association of America, 2000) *''Number Theory: A Lively Introduction with Proofs, Applications, and Stories'' (with James Pommersheim and Tim Marks, John Wiley & Sons, 2010) *''Knots, Molecules, and the Universe: An Introduction to Topology'' (2015) Her

edited volume An edited volume or edited collection is a collection of scholarly or scientific chapters written by different authors. The chapters in an edited volume are original works (not republished works). Alternative terms for edited volume are ''contrib ...

s include ''Applications of Knot Theory'' (with Dorothy Buck, 2009), ''Knots, Links, Spatial Graphs, and Algebraic Invariants'' (with Allison Henrich, Aaron Kaestner, and Sam Nelson, 2017), and ''Topology and Geometry of Biopolymers'' (with Helen Wong, 2018).

Recognition

In 2011, Flapan was one of three winners of the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, from the Mathematical Association of America.Award citation
January 2011 Prizes and Awards
MAA, retrieved 2013-01-22. In 2012 she became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

, and in the same year as part of the bicentennial of Hamilton College was honored with a Hamilton Alumni Achievement Medal. In recognition of her devotion to mentoring, Flapan won the M. Gweneth Humphreys Award from 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 ...

in 2018. She will deliver the Chan Stanek Lecture for Students at

MathFest MathFest is a mathematics conference hosted annually in late summer by the Mathematical Association of America. It is known for its dual focus on teaching and research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the s ...

2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flapan, Erica 1956 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Topologists Hamilton College (New York) alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Pomona College faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians Mathematicians from New York (state) 20th-century American women 21st-century American women