Alissa Susan Crans is an American mathematician specializing in

higher-dimensional algebra In mathematics, especially (Higher category theory, higher) category theory, higher-dimensional algebra is the study of Categorification, categorified structures. It has applications in nonabelian algebraic topology, and generalizes abstract algebr ...

. She is a professor of mathematics at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

, and the associate director of Project NExT, a program of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

to mentor post-doctoral mathematicians, statisticians, and mathematics teachers.

Education and career

Crans graduated

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

from the

University of Redlands The University of Redlands is a private university in Redlands, California, United States. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Calif ...

in 1999. She earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

in 2000 and 2004 respectively. Her dissertation, ''Lie 2-Algebras'', was supervised by John C. Baez. She worked as a lecturer at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

in 2002, as VIGRE Ross Assistant Professor at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

from 2005 to 2006, and as Visiting Dickson Instructor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 2008. Meanwhile she started as an assistant professor at

in 2004, and was promoted to full professor there in 2016, with another leave to work as Associate Director of Diversity and Education at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...

from 2012 to 2014. She took up her position as associate director of Project NExT in 2014. She is also active as a mentor for women in mathematics, and served as member-at-large on the executive committee of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

from 2014 to 2018.

Recognition

Diamond Bar High School lists Crans among their Distinguished Alumni. In 2011 the

(MAA) gave Crans their Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College/University Mathematics Faculty Member. In the same year she also won the Merten M. Hasse Prize of the MAA for her paper "Musical Actions of Dihedral Groups". She was an MAA Distinguished Lecturer in 2014, speaking about the

Catalan number The Catalan numbers are a sequence of natural numbers that occur in various Enumeration, counting problems, often involving recursion, recursively defined objects. They are named after Eugène Charles Catalan, Eugène Catalan, though they were p ...

s. The

has included her in the 2020 class of AWM Fellows for "mentoring and supporting women at Loyola Marymount and through EDGE, SMP, SPWM, and Project NExT; for her role in the Pacific Coast Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, recognized as an AMS Program That Makes a Difference". She is included in a deck of playing cards featuring notable women mathematicians published by the Association of Women in Mathematics.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crans, Alissa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American mathematicians University of Redlands alumni Pomona College faculty Loyola Marymount University faculty 21st-century American women mathematicians Scientists from California Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics