Jacqueline Ann Jensen-Vallin is an American mathematician. She is a chair and professor of mathematics at

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the ...

, former

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of ''

MAA FOCUS ''MAA FOCUS'' is the newsmagazine 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 ...

'', the newsletter 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 ...

(MAA), and a former governor of the Texas Section of the MAA. Her research interests include

combinatorial group theory In mathematics, combinatorial group theory is the theory of free groups, and the concept of a presentation of a group by generators and relations. It is much used in geometric topology, the fundamental group of a simplicial complex having in a na ...

low-dimensional topology In mathematics, low-dimensional topology is the branch of topology that studies manifolds, or more generally topological spaces, of four or fewer dimensions. Representative topics are the theory of 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds, knot theory, ...

, and

knot theory In topology, knot theory is the study of knot (mathematics), mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be und ...

; she is also known for her work 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 ...

and the history of

women in mathematics This is a timeline of women in mathematics. Timeline Classical Age * Before 350: Pandrosion, a Greeks, Greek mathematician known for an approximate solution to doubling the cube and a simplified exact solution to the construction of the geometr ...

Education and career

Jensen-Vallin did her undergraduate studies at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, completing a

double major Joint degrees are academic qualifications awarded through integrated curricula often jointly coordinated and delivered by multiple higher education institutions, sometimes across different countries. Graduates may receive a single qualification ...

in mathematics and psychology in 1995. She went to the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

for her graduate studies, and completed her doctorate there in 2002. Her dissertation, ''Finding

\pi_2

-Generators for Exotic Homotopy Types of Two-Complexes'', concerned

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which uses abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, to solve geometry, geometrical problems. Classically, it studies zero of a function, zeros of multivariate polynomials; th ...

and was supervised by Micheal Dyer. After completing her doctorate, she joined the faculty at

Sam Houston State University Sam Houston State University (Sam Houston, SHSU or Sam) is a public research university in Huntsville, Texas, United States. Founded in 1879, it is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools wes ...

in 2002. She moved to Lamar University in 2014.

Book

With Janet Beery, Sarah J. Greenwald, and Maura B. Mast, Jensen-Vallin is an editor of the book ''Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America'' (Springer, 2017).

Awards and honors

Jensen-Vallin was one of the 2008 winners of the Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member. 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 ...

gave her their Service Award in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen-Vallin, Jacqueline Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American mathematicians University of Connecticut alumni University of Oregon alumni Sam Houston State University faculty Lamar University people 21st-century American women mathematicians