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, graph theory is the study of '' graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conn ...

. She is a

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

of mathematics at

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

and the author of multiple textbooks on graph theory and

mathematical proof A mathematical proof is an Inference, inferential Argument-deduction-proof distinctions, argument for a Proposition, mathematical statement, showing that the stated assumptions logically guarantee the conclusion. The argument may use other previo ...

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

University of Jordan The University of Jordan ( ar, الجامعة الأردنية), often abbreviated UJ, is a public university located in Amman, Jordan. Founded in 1962 by royal decree, it is the largest and oldest institution of higher education in Jordan ...

, working there on

ring theory In algebra, ring theory is the study of rings—algebraic structures in which addition and multiplication are defined and have similar properties to those operations defined for the integers. Ring theory studies the structure of rings, their r ...

with Hasan Al-Ezeh. She completed her Ph.D. in 1995 at

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

. 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 alg ...

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

Bruce Sagan Bruce E. Sagan (born March 29, 1954, Chicago, Illinois, United States) 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, ...

. After a short-term position at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

, she joined the Western Michigan faculty in 1996.

Books

Zhang is the author of: *''Mathematical Proofs: A Transition to Advanced Mathematics'' (with Gary Chartrand and A. D. Polimeni, Addison-Wesley, 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 Gary Chartrand, CRC Press, 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, 2015) *''A Kaleidoscopic View of Graph Colorings'' (Springer, 2016) *''How to Label a Graph'' (with Gary Chartrand and Cooroo Egan, Springer, 2019) 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 American women mathematicians Graph theorists University of Jordan alumni Michigan State University alumni University of Texas at El Paso faculty Western Michigan University faculty 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 20th-century American women 21st-century American women