MATH - Key Persons


Archibald Henderson

Archibald Henderson, 1877-1963, UNC A.B. 1898, UNC A.M 1899, received the first Ph.D. in mathematics from UNC in 1902, with advisers W. Cain and W. Toy, the latter a professor of Romance Languages. He also directed the next Ph.D. dissertation, that of G.W. Nicholson, in 1933. Henderson was at UNC, except for research in Europe and Chicago, where he picked up a second Ph.D. in 1915, from 1898 until his retirement in 1948. He was Chair from 1920 to 1948 and Kenan Professor beginning in 1926. Henderson was famous for his research on the theory of relativity and his papers and talks defending and explaining it. In several papers he stressed the geometrical basis of relativity and showed how to substitute insight for cumbersome computations. He was perhaps best known as the official biographer of G.B. Shaw. He established as part of UNC's Rare Book Collection an important collection of materials related to Shaw and his work.

Assani, Idris

Job Titles:
  • Professor

Austin M. Carr

Job Titles:
  • Distinguished Professor

Bhattacharya, Arunima

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Bill Guthridge

Job Titles:
  • Fellow

Burkhead, Emily G

Job Titles:
  • Teaching Assistant Professor

Camassa, Roberto A


Canzani Sloan

Job Titles:
  • Research Fellow

Canzani-Garcia, Yaiza

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Chapman Hall - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Associate
  • Chairman
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Christianson, Hans P

Job Titles:
  • Director of Graduate Studies
  • Professor

Dr. Rodriguez

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor
Dr. Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before this position, he was an NSF Postdoctoral Scholar and CLE Moore Instructor at MIT, under the mentorship of Gigliola Staffilani. Dr. Rodriguez earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago feeling very fortunate to be advised by Carlos E. Kenig.

Dumitrescu, Olivia M

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Elmore, Gina


Ernest Eliel

Job Titles:
  • Distinguished Professor

Foushee-Tyson, Jean

Job Titles:
  • Applied Mathematics Program Administrator

Gammon, Brandon

Job Titles:
  • Website Manager

Grant Dahlstrom

Job Titles:
  • Director, Carolina Center for Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics
  • Distinguished Professor

Green, Linda

Job Titles:
  • Teaching Associate Professor

Griffith, Boyce E

Job Titles:
  • Professor

Guan, James

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant

H. Christianson

Job Titles:
  • Mathematical Research Letters, 26, 2, 421 - 445, 2019

Hendrickson, Kelli

Job Titles:
  • Adjunct Research Associate Professor

Hong, Jiuzu

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Inman, Rhonda

Job Titles:
  • Administrative Department Manager

J. Burton Linker

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor
  • Fellow

Jones, Christopher

Job Titles:
  • Adjunct Research Professor

Joseph P. Caldwell

Joseph P. Caldwell came from a job as tutor at Princeton in 1796 to be a "Presiding Professor" of mathematics. In 1804 he was made the first President of the University. The College of South Carolina tried very hard to hire him away but failed. Besides mathematics, he also taught classics. As President, he "longed for a time when he could complete his work in Geometry," which he eventually did. In 1812 Caldwell returned to the mathematics chair and was replaced as President by Robert Hett Chapman. Chapman was a "peace Federalist" at a time when a war spirit against England existed in the community. Under fire, including student protests, he resigned in 1816, and Caldwell returned to serve as President from 1816 until his death in 1835.

Kovalsky, Shahar Z

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Kross, Sara


Leiderman, Karin

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Li, Shiying

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Major William B. Cain

Major William B. Cain, 1847-1930, arrived during the period 1880-1890 and became one of the original five Kenan Professors appointed in 1918. Cain specialized in the mathematics behind engineering and design. His research, writing, and teaching made possible the construction of numerous structures around the country. His sophomore-level course on analytic geometry was regarded as among the most rigorous in the University.

McCombs, Mark

Job Titles:
  • Teaching Associate Professor

McLaughlin, Elizabeth

Job Titles:
  • Teaching Associate Professor

McLaughlin, Richard M - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Professor

McPhail-Snyder, Calvin

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Research Collaborator

Metcalfe, Jason L


Newhall, Katherine A

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Norberto Kerzman

Job Titles:
  • Professor
Revered and beloved mathematics Professor Norberto Kerzman died peacefully on June 5, 2019 at the Hillcrest Convalescent Center in Durham, North Carolina, supported by many of his closest friends from the community. Norberto was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1943. He obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Buenos Aires, and came to the USA to pursue graduate studies. He obtained his PhD in mathematics from New York University in 1970. He taught initially at Princeton and MIT and joined UNC-Chapel Hill in 1979 where he became a full professor in 1982. He retired in 2006. During his tenure, he was also a visiting professor in Argentina, France (Universities of Grenoble, Paris IV & VI and Marseille-Aix), and Sweden (Mittag-Leffler Institute) and for shorter periods at universities in Germany, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. His research, funded by the National Science Foundation, focused on several complex variables, harmonic analysis/ Fourier series, partial differential equations, and conformal mapping which led to many scientific publications. During his career, he also oversaw the doctoral theses of Ian Graham at Princeton University (1973), Steven Bell and Harold Boas at MIT (1980), and David Monn at UNC-Chapel Hill (1985), all of whom went on to prestigious careers. Norberto was a member of the American Mathematical Society and was Departmental Undergraduate Adviser at UNC for many years. He excelled at facilitating his undergraduate students' understanding of complex mathematical concepts, and obtained the MIT Graduate Teaching Award in 1976 and the UNC Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award in 2000. His total dedication to the success of his students developed into long term friendships with many of them. In addition to his mathematical knowledge, Norberto had a remarkable ability with languages and spoke fluent Spanish (his mother tongue), English, Italian, French, German, and Greek, which he learned during his fifties to better enjoy the many summers he spent on various Greek islands. He was also an active member of the local Alliance Franҁaise for 25 years and the Spanish conversation group at the Seymour Center in Chapel Hill. Altogether, he was a true Renaissance man who loved art, music, philosophy, science, nature and a good discussion.

Ostrovsky, Lev

Job Titles:
  • Adjunct Professor

Paul Cornwell Wins

Graduate Student Paul Cornwell was invited to give a talk at the IMACS…

Pedro Sáenz

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor and Director of the Physical Mathematics Laboratory in the Department
Pedro Sáenz is an assistant professor and director of the Physical Mathematics Laboratory in the Department of Mathematics within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He works to demonstrate that some odd behaviors displayed by electrons and other atomic-sized particles can be recreated with larger particles visible to the human eye.

Phillips Hall - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Administrative Support
  • Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
  • Director of Graduate Studies
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies
  • Director, Carolina Center for Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics
  • Grants Administrator
Phillips Hall, the home of the department of Mathematics, opened in 1919 and honored three members of the Phillips family who taught at the university during the nineteenth century. Phillips Hall opened in 1919 and honored three members of the Phillips family who taught at the University during the nineteenth century. During the antebellum era, James Phillips taught mathematics. His son Charles Phillips taught mathematics and engineering, and his grandson William Battle Phillips taught courses in agriculture, chemistry, and mining.

Proctor, Robert

Job Titles:
  • Adjunct Professor

Rose, David

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Rozansky, Lev

Job Titles:
  • Professor

Shryock, Brenda

Job Titles:
  • Adjunct Lecturer

Smirnov, Andrey

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Straube, Laurie

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student Services Manager

Sáenz, Pedro J

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Tamim, Saiful

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Thomas, Miranda D

Job Titles:
  • Teaching Assistant Professor

Wang, Jian

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Wells, David

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate
  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant

William R. Kenan

Job Titles:
  • Distinguished Professor

Williams, Mark

Job Titles:
  • Professor

Willis, Erin

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student Services Manager

Yaiza Canzani

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics