Mathworks Faculty

Dr. William Boney 

I grew up in Austin, Texas and spent several lovely summers at Texas State University as part of the Mathworks program. I moved out of state to attend Grinnell College in Iowa. I got my Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA in 2014. Prior to coming (back) to Texas State University, I had positions in Chicago and Boston.

My work is mostly in model theory, which is an area of logic. Rather than having anything to do with modeling, model theory is a kind of meta-mathematics that studies the way other people do mathematics and turns classes of structures (vector spaces, graphs, groups, etc.) into the objects of study. This allows model theory to both identify common causes of similar phenomena across mathematics and to transport techniques from one area to another.

I specifically work with nonelementary classes, those that require axioms beyond first-order logic to describe. Moving beyond first-order logic means that we lose the powerful compactness theorem, and much of my research is in finding what fragments of compactness can be recovered in different classes. This research naturally intersects with set theory, category theory, and different areas of algebra.

I enjoy math because I love working with friends and colleagues to solve interesting problems.

Dr. Eugene Curtin has been a member of the Texas State University faculty since 1988 and the Honors Summer Math Camp faculty since 1991. He teaches problem solving, combinatorics and abstract algebra and sometimes directs student research projects with the camp. He enjoys playing and discussing mathematical games and puzzles. His research interests have included differential geometry, abstract algebra and combinatorics. He is also a Mathematica enthusiast as well as an expert chess player.

Dr. Jian Shen is a professor of mathematics at Texas State University. He has been directing student research projects with the Honors Summer Math Camp since 2003. He is also involved with the residential Junior Summer Math Camp. His research interests include Graph Theory, Combinatorics, Matrix theory, Probabilistic Methods in Discrete Mathematics, Algorithm, Game Theory, and Computer Networks. He has received research grants from NSF, THECB, NSERC (Canada), and NNSF (China). He was the 2nd placed student in the final of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad 1985, and thus was selected to the Chinese IMO team in 1986. He received Canadian Mathematical Society Doctoral Prize in 1999. He was awarded an Academic Gold Medal from the Governor General of Canada in 1999. He won Texas State University Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activities in 2004, and was named by National Academy of Science as a "Kavli Frontiers Fellow" in 2007.

Dr. Cody Patterson received his B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics at Texas A&M University in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. In his dissertation, he constructed examples of CAT(0) cell complexes on which certain classes of Coxeter groups act without global fixed points.

From 2011 to 2015, Dr. Patterson served as the director of the University of Arizona's Center for Recruitment and Retention of Mathematics Teachers, which provided induction coaching and professional development for over 400 K-12 teachers of mathematics in the Tucson metropolitan area. He has also remained active in the mathematics competition community, serving as the chair (2017-2018) of the Question Writing Committee for MATHCOUNTS, the largest contest in the United States for middle school students, and serving as an Associate Editor for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination.

Dr. Patterson's research investigates secondary students' and teachers' mathematical meanings for concepts and procedures in high school algebra, such as solving equations and graphing quantitative relationships. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation DRK-12 award (#1908825) for the project "Reasoning Language for Teaching Secondary Algebra (ReLaTe-SA)".

I enjoy mathematics because of the endless opportunities it provides for exploration of abstract structure, as well as the power it offers for explanation of natural phenomena. There are few things I enjoy more than getting wrapped up in a problem, especially when the problem is simple enough to explain to a classroom full of children and can be explored using mathematical techniques ranging from the elementary to the exotic.

Dr. Hiroko Warshauer is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Texas State University and Mathworks Assistant Director of Research and Curriculum Development. She is co-author of the Mathworks Explorationscurriculum, a Mathworks middle school textbook series state adopted in Texas, and Math Quest, the Junior Summer Math Camp curriculum. She provides professional development to support curriculum implementation with inservice teachers and works with prospective teachers. Her research interests include areas of teacher preparation and teaching and learning that foster productive struggle. She received her B. A. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago, her M. S. in Mathematics from Louisiana State University, and her Ph. D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Max Warshauer is the Founder and Director of Texas Mathworks, and a Regents' Professor of Mathematics. He worked with Dr. McCabe and Dr. Hiroko Warshauer to develop the curriculum for the Junior Summer Math Camp, and teaches Number Theory in the Honors Summer Math Camp each summer. 

Dr. Alex White is a professor of mathematics  at Texas State University. He is a co-author of the Mathworks school year curriculum, and has also worked extensively with the Mathworks professional development program.  Dr. White has also mentored several research projects during the Mathworks Honors Summer Math Camp.