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CV

The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.
-- Pierre Abelard

My main research interest is mathematical linguistics.  Mathematicians and linguists alike have asked me frequently, "Well, what the hell is that?"

In general, mathematical linguistics is that application of mathematics to the study of language.  That may seem like a trivial definition, but for someone like me involved in mathematical linguistics it really is the working definition.   For my case, my linguistic interests center around phonology and phonetics, and my linguistic interests dictate my mathematical interests.  So, for instance, I'm interested in how phonological systems and language acquisition can be modeled with decision theory, Bayesian statistics, probability, and so forth.  I'm also interested in mathematics related to phonetics such as wavelets, dynamical systems and PDEs.  Other researchers more interested in syntax might appeal to category theory, combinatorics, logical algebras, and so forth.  If you are interested in both mathematics and language, my suggestion is to choose one field that is most of interest to you in, say, linguistics as I did, and see what branches of mathematics apply.  Or vice versa.  Go to my links page below for some online sources of information.  As you can see, there are also indirect ways of going about this, through mathematical neuroscience, and cognitive science, natural language processing.

In my case, I believe that mathematics allows us to be very precise about what we are taking about in linguistic theories, and by employing mathematical reasoning and techniques, we stand the best chance of seeing implications of our theories, and testing their validity with or without a computer.  Mathematical linguistics is a small but growing subfield of linguistics, though this lack of understanding sometimes presents barriers even as it opens up additional opportunities.

In my trek through academia to find a place that will let me pursue my research goals and give me the tools to do it, I've been to lots of different places.  Let me list them for you:

Undergraduate Degree:
Bachelor of Arts in Classical and Medieval Studies from Cleveland State University (with minors in Mathematics and Physics)

Masters Degrees:
Master of Arts in Linguistics from Indiana University, Bloomington

Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from Cleveland State University

Master of Science in Management Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University

Doctoral Degree:
(In progress) Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Pittsburgh
other affiliated programs: Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (with Carnegie Mellon University) and Asian Studies Center

For a more detailed look at my research, check out my links below.

Current research interests

Research papers published and "completed" research (as if it's ever really complete)

Links

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. --Mae West, "Klondike Annie," movie, 1936