Biography: Dr. Aparna Higgins, University of Dayton.
Dr. Higgins received a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University
of Bombay in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University
of Notre Dame in 1983. Her dissertation was in universal algebra,
and her current research interests are in graph theory.
Dr. Higgins has taught at the University of Dayton for the last
eighteen years. Although she teaches the usual collection of undergraduate
courses, her most fulfilling experiences as a teacher have come
from directing undergraduates in mathematical research. She has
advised many undergraduate Honors theses, co-directed NSF-sponsored
Research Experiences for Undergraduates, and continues to help
students prepare talks for regional and national mathematics meetings.
Aparna has also presented workshops at MAA Section meetings and
in Project NExT on undergraduate research, and co-presented (with
Joe Gallian and Stephen Hartke) an MAA minicourse on undergraduate
research at the annual AMS/MAA Joint Meetings in San Diego, San
Antonio, New Orleans, and Washington, DC.
At the University of Dayton, Dr. Higgins received the College
of Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1988, and
the Alumni Award in Teaching (a University-wide award) in 1989.
She was honored by the Ohio Section of the MAA with its Distinguished
Teaching Award in 1995.
Dr. Higgins has served the MAA as a member of various committees.
Her most enjoyable MAA Committee experience was being a member
of, and then chairing, the Committee on Student Chapters, which
helps create and maintain Student Chapters, provides support to
Sections for student activities, and provides appropriate programming
for undergraduates at national meetings. She is also a co-director
for Project NExT, a program of the MAA funded by a grant from
the EXXONMobil Education Foundation, and various other funding
agencies. Project NExT is a program designed to introduce recent
Ph.D.s in mathematics to issues of teaching undergraduate mathematics.
Dr. Higgins is married to Bill Higgins, who teaches mathematics
at Wittenberg University, and has two sons, aged 12 and 9, and
two step-sons.
