My name is Dana Ernst and I am an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. This site is part of the Booles’ Rings network of academic home pages/blogs.

My primary research interests are in the interplay between combinatorics and algebraic structures. More specifically, I study the combinatorics of Coxeter groups and their associated Hecke algebras, Kazhdan-Lusztig theory, generalized Temperley-Lieb algebras, diagram algebras, and heaps of pieces. By employing combinatorial tools such as diagram algebras and heaps of pieces, one can gain insight into algebraic structures associated to Coxeter groups, and, conversely, the corresponding structure theory can often lead to surprising combinatorial results.

More recently, my research has expanded into combinatorial game theory (joint with Nandor Sieben and Bret Benesh). In particular, our research has focused on avoidance and achievement games involving finite groups. See my scholarship page for more information.

The combinatorial nature of my research naturally lends itself to collaborations with undergraduate students, and my goal is to incorporate undergraduates in my research as much as possible. Check out my undergraduate research page for examples of recent projects.

My interests also include the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) with a focus on inquiry-based learning (IBL) as an approach to teaching/exploring mathematics. I am currently a Special Projects Coordinator for the Academy of Inquiry-Based Learning and a mentor for several new IBL practitioners. Moreover, I actively give talks and organize workshops on the benefits of IBL as well as the nuts and bolts of how to implement this approach in the mathematics classroom.

In addition to using free and open-source software, I am inspired by the recent open-source textbook movement and I strongly believe that educators should choose free, open-source, or low cost textbooks when a viable alternative exists. For a selection of free and/or open-source textbooks, see my list located here. Also, take a peek at Rob Beezer’s selection on this page. Moreover, the American Institute of Mathematics maintains a list of approved open-source textbooks. If you find one of the books list on any of the above links more helpful than another, please let me know.

Angie Hodge and I are coauthors for Math Ed Matters, which is a (roughly) monthly column sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. The column explores topics and current events related to undergraduate mathematics education. Posts aim to inspire, provoke deep thought, and provide ideas for the mathematics classroom. Our interest in and engagement with IBL color the column’s content.

Besides blogging here and for Math Ed Matters, I am also an editor for Mathblogging.org, which is a site devoted to aggregating the multitude of math-related blogs and news sources across the Internet. My job as editor is to select a blog posts to be included in the Editors’ Picks List.

You can find me on Twitter at @danaernst and @IBLMath.

Lastly, I am a husband and a father of two incredible sons. Oh, I enjoy drinking copious amounts of coffee, too.

Dana C. Ernst, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Northern Arizona University
805 South Osborne Drive
PO Box 5717
Flagstaff, AZ 86011

This website was created using GitHub Pages and Jekyll together with Twitter Bootstrap. You can find the source code on GitHub.


Dana C. Ernst

Mathematics & Teaching

  Northern Arizona University
  Flagstaff, AZ
  Website
  928.523.6852
  Twitter
  Instagram
  Facebook
  Strava
  GitHub
  arXiv
  ResearchGate
  LinkedIn
  Mendeley
  Google Scholar
  Impact Story
  ORCID

Current Courses

  MAT 226: Discrete Math
  MAT 690: CGT

About This Site

  This website was created using GitHub Pages and Jekyll together with Twitter Bootstrap.

  Unless stated otherwise, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

  The views expressed on this site are my own and are not necessarily shared by my employer Northern Arizona University.

  The source code is on GitHub.

Land Acknowledgement

  Flagstaff and NAU sit at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, on homelands sacred to Native Americans throughout the region. The Peaks, which includes Humphreys Peak (12,633 feet), the highest point in Arizona, have religious significance to several Native American tribes. In particular, the Peaks form the Diné (Navajo) sacred mountain of the west, called Dook'o'oosłííd, which means "the summit that never melts". The Hopi name for the Peaks is Nuva'tukya'ovi, which translates to "place-of-snow-on-the-very-top". The land in the area surrounding Flagstaff is the ancestral homeland of the Hopi, Ndee/Nnēē (Western Apache), Yavapai, A:shiwi (Zuni Pueblo), and Diné (Navajo). We honor their past, present, and future generations, who have lived here for millennia and will forever call this place home.