Ping Zhang is a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

specializing in

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 ...

. She is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

and the author of multiple textbooks on graph theory and

mathematical proof A mathematical proof is a deductive reasoning, deductive Argument-deduction-proof distinctions, argument for a Proposition, mathematical statement, showing that the stated assumptions logically guarantee the conclusion. The argument may use othe ...

. Zhang earned a master's degree in 1989 from the

University of Jordan The University of Jordan (), often abbreviated UJ or JU, is a public university located in Amman, Jordan. Founded in 1962, and it is the largest and oldest institution of higher education in Jordan. It is located in the capital Amman in the J ...

, working there on ring theory with Hasan Al-Ezeh. She completed her Ph.D. in 1995 at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. Her dissertation, in

algebraic combinatorics Algebraic combinatorics is an area of mathematics that employs methods of abstract algebra, notably group theory and representation theory, in various combinatorial contexts and, conversely, applies combinatorial techniques to problems in algeb ...

, was ''Subposets of Boolean Algebras'', and was supervised by

Bruce Sagan Bruce Eli Sagan (born March 29, 1954) is an American Professor of Mathematics at Michigan State University. He specializes in enumerative, algebraic, and topological combinatorics. He is also known as a musician, playing music from Scandinavia a ...

. After a short-term position at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

, she joined the Western Michigan faculty in 1996.

Books

Zhang is the author of: * ''Mathematical Proofs: A Transition to Advanced Mathematics'' (with

Gary Chartrand Gary Theodore Chartrand (born 1936) is an American-born mathematician who specializes in graph theory. He is known for his textbooks on introductory graph theory and for the concept of a highly irregular graph. Biography Gary Chartrand was born ...

and A. D. Polimeni,

Addison-Wesley Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...

, 2002; 2nd ed., 2007; 3rd ed., 2012) * ''Introduction to Graph Theory'' (with Gary Chartrand, McGraw-Hill, 2004; Chinese ed., 2006); revised as ''A First Course in Graph Theory'' (Dover, 2012) * ''Chromatic Graph Theory'' (with

CRC Press The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technol ...

, 2008) * ''Graphs & Digraphs'' (by Gary Chartrand and Linda Lesniak, with Zhang added as a co-author on the 5th ed., CRC Press, 2010) * ''Discrete Mathematics'' (with Gary Chartrand, Waveland Press, 2011) * ''Covering Walks in Graphs'' (with Futaba Fujie, Springer, 2014) * ''Color-Induced Graph Colorings'' (Springer, 2015) *''The Fascinating World of Graph Theory'' (with Arthur T. Benjamin and Gary Chartrand,

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 2015) * ''A Kaleidoscopic View of Graph Colorings'' (Springer, 2016) * ''How to Label a Graph'' (with Gary Chartrand and Cooroo Egan, Springer, 2019) * ''Irregularity in Graphs'' (with Akbar Ali and Gary Chartrand, Springer, 2021) She is also the co-editor of: * ''Handbook of Graph Theory'' (originally edited by Jonathan L. Gross and Jay Yellen, with Zhang added as a co-editor on the 2nd ed., CRC Press, 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Ping Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Graph theorists University of Jordan alumni Michigan State University alumni University of Texas at El Paso faculty Western Michigan University faculty 20th-century American women mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians