Maura B. Mast is an Irish-American mathematician, mathematics educator, and academic administrator, specializing in

differential geometry Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...

and quantitative reasoning. With Ethan D. Bolker, she is the author of the textbook ''Common Sense Mathematics''. Mast is dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, part of

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

Early life and education

Mast is the daughter of Cecil B. Mast (1927–2008), a mathematics professor at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

. Her mother was Irish, and Mast has dual Irish and American citizenship. She grew up in South Bend and did her undergraduate studies at Notre Dame, with a double major in mathematics and anthropology. She completed her doctorate in mathematics in 1992 at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 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 States ...

. Her dissertation, ''Closed Geodesics in 2-step Nilmanifolds'', concerned the

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connection. ...

s on curved surfaces, and was supervised by Pat Eberlein.

Career

Mast became a faculty member at the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and grad ...

in 1992. After visiting professorships at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

and

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, she moved to the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...

in 1998. There, in 2009, she became associate vice provost for undergraduate studies. In 2015 she came to

as the first female dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. In 2022 she earned and was promoted to rank of full Professor at Fordham University.

Activism

Mast has been an active member of the Clavius Group, a group of

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

and lay mathematicians, and is a strong supporter of the Jesuit vision of

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

spirituality. She has also been a passionate advocate for the advancement of women in mathematics and science, which she writes is "crucial for the future of the country and for women". She has participated in the governance 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 ...

as Clerk and Executive Committee member of the association. Mast was chair of the Special Interest Group on Quantitative Literacy 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 ...

for 2006–2007.

Books

*''Common Sense Mathematics'' (with Ethan D. Bolker, Mathematical Association of America, 2016) *''Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America'' (edited with

Janet Beery Janet Lynn Beery is an American mathematician and historian of mathematics who serves as a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Redlands. She also served as the editor-in-chief of mathematics history journal ''Converge ...

, Sarah J. Greenwald, and

Jacqueline Jensen-Vallin Jacqueline Ann Jensen-Vallin is an American mathematician. She is an associate professor of mathematics at Lamar University, the editor-in-chief of '' MAA FOCUS'', the newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the governor of ...

, Springer, 2017)

Recognition

In 2017 Mast was given the Association for Women in Mathematics Service Award. The

has included Mast in the 2020 class of AWM Fellows for "her sustained and deep contributions to promoting and encouraging the participation of women in the mathematical sciences through AWM, the Joint Committee on Women, the MAA, and through leadership in academia".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mast, Maura Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Irish mathematicians American women mathematicians People from South Bend, Indiana University of Notre Dame alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni University of Northern Iowa faculty Wellesley College faculty University of Massachusetts Boston faculty Fordham University faculty Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Place of birth missing (living people)