Erica Flapan

Erica Flapan is an American mathematician, the Lingurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College.^[1]

Flapan did her undergraduate studies at Hamilton College (New York), graduating in 1977,^[2][3] and went on to graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning a Ph.D. in 1983 under the supervision of Daniel McMillan.^[4] After postdoctoral studies at Rice University and the University of California, Santa Barbara she joined the Pomona faculty in 1986.^[2][3]

Flapan's research is in low-dimensional topology and knot theory. She has published numerous papers, as well as worked on three books.^[3] She is the author of the book When Topology Meets Chemistry: A Topological Look at Molecular Chirality (Cambridge University Press and Mathematical Association of America, 2000).^[3] In 2009, Flapan edited the book Applications of Knot Theory along with Dorothy Buck.^[5] With James Pommersheim and Tim Marks she also wrote the book Number Theory: A Lively Introduction with Proofs, Applications, and Stories (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).^[3]

In 2011, Flapan was one of three winners of the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, from the Mathematical Association of America.^[6][3] In 2012 she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society,^[7] and in the same year as part of the bicentennial of Hamilton College was honored with a Hamilton Alumni Achievement Medal.^[8]

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