Faculty and Staff Directory

Introduction

Jenny taught in and chaired the mathematics department at Occidental College before moving to UW Tacoma in 2007. She is a professor of Mathematics and served four years as Associate Director for IAS. She has held many positions of national leadership in mathematics including Executive Director for the Association for Women in Mathematics, Second Vice President of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), co-editor of MAA's Math Horizons, and, currently chair of MAA's Council on Publications and Communications . She received one of MAA's 2007 Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching, the MAA's 2006 Beckenbach Book award for Proofs That Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof, co-authored with Arthur Benjamin. As a combinatorial scholar, Jenny thinks that beautiful proofs are as much art as science. Simplicity, elegance and transparency should be the driving principles. She strives to bring this same ethic to her professional service and administrative work.

Current Research

Her research focuses on combinatorics, graph theory and combinatorial matrix theory. She likes to count — specifically, finding concrete counting contexts that lead to clever combinatorial proofs of algebraic identities.

Recently, she has focused on sign-reversing involutions to delve into alternating sum identities, forming the backbone of her current project. She and her co-author, Arthur Benjamin, are (finally) writing a sequel to their award-winning Proofs That Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof tentatively titled Proofs That Really Count II: Quintessential Combinatorial Proof.

Teaching

Autumn 2016

• T12H 124: Calculus & Analytic Geometry I
  TTh: 10:15-12:20 in 16 110
  TTh: 3:05-5:10 in JOY 109

Previously has taught:

• TMATH 124, 125 & 126: Calculus & Analytic Geometry I, II & III
• TMATH 308: Matrix Analysis and its Applications
• TCORE 124: Introduction to Science (Science of Secrecy)
• TCSS 321 & 322: Discrete Math I & II

Affiliations

• Mathematical Association of America
• Association for Women in Mathematics
• Fibonacci Association
• Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications

Academic Service

• A die-hard supporter of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) — serving as chair of the Council on Publications and Communications, leading the Governance and Communications Taskforce, and a popular speaker in the Section Visitor's Program.

Honors and Awards

• 2016 Princeton University Press Best Writing on Mathematics 2016. Epic Math Battles: Counting versus Matching (Math Horizons, February 2015) selected for inclusion in the prestigious annual collection of mathematical exposition. 
• 2012 University of Washington Tacoma Outstanding Woman
• 2007 Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics
  One of three recipients awarded annually by the Mathematical Association of America to honor teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions.
• 2006 Beckenbach Book Prize for Proofs that Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof. Awarded by the Mathematical Association of America to recognize a distinguished, innovative, and truly outstanding book.
• 2005 Graham L. Sterling Award awarded by the Promotion and Tenure Committee of Occidental College to a faculty member "in recognition of strong teaching and service, and in particular, distinguished professional achievement."
• 2004 Outstanding Academic Title, Proofs that Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof awarded January 2005 by Choice, the principal review journal for academic libraries.