Joy Morris (born 1970) is a Canadian mathematician whose research involves

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

, and the connections between the two through

Cayley graph In mathematics, a Cayley graph, also known as a Cayley color graph, Cayley diagram, group diagram, or color group, is a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph that encodes the abstract structure of a group (mathematics), group. Its definition is sug ...

s. She is also interested in

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...

, is the author of two open-access undergraduate mathematics textbooks, and oversees a program in which university mathematics education students provide a drop-in mathematics tutoring service for parents of middle school students. She is a professor of mathematics at the

University of Lethbridge The University of Lethbridge (also known as uLethbridge, uLeth, and U of L) is a public comprehensive and research university located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with a second campus in Calgary, Alberta. Founded in the liberal arts traditio ...

Education and career

Morris is originally from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. Both her parents had doctorates; she was the youngest of their four children, another of whom also earned a Ph.D.. She was educated through various alternative-education and gifted-student programs in the Toronto public school system. She graduated from

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Founded in 1964, the university is known for its Oxbridge college system, sma ...

in 1992 with a double major in mathematics and English, and with fourth-year honours in mathematics earned in part through a summer research project with Brian Alspach at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

. She entered graduate study directly after graduating, continuing to work with Alspach at Simon Fraser, and completed her doctorate in 2000 with a dissertation on ''Isomorphisms of Cayley Graphs''. Morris joined the Lethbridge faculty in 2000, and was promoted to full professor in 2015. her position as a professor at Lethbridge was for

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

Mathematics education

In 2017, after learning about the frustrating experiences of her middle-school daughter's friends' parents, Morris founded a drop-in mathematics tutoring center through the University of Lethbridge, in which Lethbridge

students would tutor middle-school parents on the mathematics their children were learning, and provide educational activities for the parents to do with their children. The program was successful, and has continued in subsequent years.

Other contributions

Morris's results in groups, graphs, and the symmetries of groups and graphs include a proof of Toida's conjecture according to which, for certain

circulant graph In graph theory, a circulant graph is an undirected graph acted on by a cyclic group of symmetries which takes any vertex to any other vertex. It is sometimes called a cyclic graph, but this term has other meanings. Equivalent definitions Cir ...

s (the

s of finite

cyclic group In abstract algebra, a cyclic group or monogenous group is a Group (mathematics), group, denoted C_n (also frequently \Z_n or Z_n, not to be confused with the commutative ring of P-adic number, -adic numbers), that is Generating set of a group, ge ...

s), every symmetry of the graph comes from a symmetry of the underlying group. According to Toida's conjecture, this equivalence between group and graph symmetries should be valid when all of the members of the generating set of the group used to construct the graph are individually generators of the group. Morris has written two

open textbook An open textbook is a textbook licensed under an open license, and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers and members of the public. Many open textbooks are distributed in either print, e-book, or audio formats that may be d ...

s in mathematics for the undergraduate students at Lethbridge. They are: *''Proofs and Concepts: the fundamentals of abstract mathematics'' (with Dave Witte Morris, 2013) *''Combinatorics: an upper-level introductory course in enumeration, graph theory, and design theory'' (2017)

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Joy 1970 births Living people Canadian mathematicians Canadian women mathematicians Graph theorists Group theorists Academic staff of the University of Lethbridge