Francis Edward Su is an American mathematician. He joined the

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergra ...

faculty in 1996, and is currently Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics. Su served as president 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 ...

from 2015–2017 and is serving as a Vice President of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

from 2020-2023. Su has received multiple awards from the MAA, including the Henry L. Alder Award and a Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, both for distinguished teaching. He was also a

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, ...

Visiting Scholar during the 2019-2020 term. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, in the 2025 class of fellows. Su received his B.S. in Mathematics from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1989. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where his advisor was

Persi Diaconis Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University. He is particularly known f ...

. His research area is

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

, and he is particularly known for his work on

fair division Fair division is the problem in game theory of dividing a set of resources among several people who have an Entitlement (fair division), entitlement to them so that each person receives their due share. The central tenet of fair division is that ...

. Su and Michael Starbird are co-authors of the book ''Topology Through Inquiry''. His book, '' Mathematics for Human Flourishing'', was released on 7 January 2020. The latter book is based on his speech of the same title, delivered Jan 6, 2017 at the Joint Math Meetings. He won the Halmos-Ford Award for Distinguished Writing in 2018 for that speech. Three of his articles have been featured on "The Princeton Anthology of the Best Writing in Mathematics" in the years 2011, 2014, and 2018. In 2021 he received the

Euler Book Prize The Euler Book Prize is an award named after Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and given annually at the Joint Mathematics Meetings by the Mathematical Association of America to an outstanding book in mathematics that ...

jointly with Christopher Jackson.Euler Book Prize 2021
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Selected publications

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References

External links

Home page at Harvey Mudd

Author page

Twitter account
American mathematicians Harvey Mudd College faculty Presidents of the Mathematical Association of America Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Harvard University alumni American academics of Chinese descent University of Texas at Austin alumni Fair division researchers {{US-mathematician-stub