As an undergraduate student at Brown University, Daniel Erman made an unexpected discovery.
“I was surprised to learn that the mathematics that we understood was dwarfed by the mathematical questions that remained unanswered,” he says.
That insight ignited an interest in mathematical research that has carried him through the University of California, Berkeley (where he got his Ph.D.), Stanford University (postdoc) and the University of Michigan (postdoc), and now to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he’s joined the Department of Mathematics as an assistant professor.
We asked Erman to tell us about his specialty, mathematical matrices, and a bit more about himself.
Erman
Q: What are your research interests?
A: I study matrices, where the entries of the matrices are given by polynomials. Matrices of polynomials have a richer and more mysterious structure than the matrices of scalars that arise in linear algebra. These types of matrices arise in many algebraic contexts, with connections to commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, and computational algebra.
Q: Why are you most excited to be at UW-Madison?
A: UW-Madison has a fantastic group of people in my field and in closely related fields, and I am really excited to join that community.
Q: What courses will you teach?
A: I am teaching second semester calculus (Math 222) this fall.
Q: What can students expect in the classroom?
A: I do lots of examples and I try to illustrate the (often sloppy) process of thinking mathematically.
Q: What do you like to do outside of work?
A: I love to cook, to hike, and to fish.
Q: What did you know about Madison before coming here?
A: I knew very little! But I loved the lakes and I had heard that there were lots of great restaurants.
Q: What’s your favorite food?
A: I lived in Italy for a year, and ever since I have loved pasta.
Q: What’s the best book you've read recently?
A: I actually just read Homer’s “The Odyssey” for the first time, which was a lot of fun!
Q: Who’s your go-to musical artist on your iPod?
A: I like to listen to Michael Jackson when I run.
To meet more new faculty members, see our full list of Q&As.