Dan Schult's Home Page

         Mathematics Department
         Colgate University
         13 Oak Drive
         Hamilton, NY 13346

         315-228-7651
         dschult _at_ colgate.edu
     

Research Interests

• I study models of spreading in continuous space or over networks.
• Spreading can be fire, polymerization reactions, or disease.
• Synchronization of networked oscillators is also spread of the synchronized state.
• I use Asymptotic methods for approximating traveling wave solutions to nonlinear PDEs.
• I use numerical methods such as pseudo-spectral simulations of nonlinear PDEs.
• I also work with numerical graph algorithms to study network structure.
• I use the tools of nonlinear dynamics to describe steady, periodic and chaotic behavior.
• I look for bifurcations from one qualitative solution behavior to another.
• I enjoy modeling at all levels: translation from words to math and back, simplification and looking for extremal cases.
• I enjoy developing scientific software, especially using the Python scripting language.

• List of publications
• NetworkX software package

Teaching Interests

• Getting students to connect math to the world.
• Removing barriers to algebraic manipulation so that its power is revealed.
• Describing mathematical principles graphically, algebraically and with words.

• Web-based demos (mostly server-side tools for courses)
• Course webpages are generally http://math.colgate.edu/mathNNN where NNN is the course number.

Some Nice Articles for Math 102
• Misleading Histogram and more generally how small changes in wording allow numbers to distract (and sometimes mislead) the casual reader.
• Grappling with the Birthday Problem and how precise wording is needed to understand numbers.

More information:

• Links to fun science/math/programming (Under Construction)