May Mei
May Mei is a Professor of Mathematics at Denison University, as well as the department chair. She received her PhD from the University of California, Irvine and her BA from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research involves the application of dynamical systems to mathematical physics. She has also worked on integer sequences and Happy Numbers, the Game of Life, the epistemology and cognitive science of mathematics, and modeling mollusk growth. In addition to being an engaged and enthusiastic instructor who treats teaching as a craft and hones her pedagogy intentionally, Dr. Mei is deeply committed to the principles of shared campus governance and is Chair of the Faculty. In the mathematics community, Dr. Mei chairs the Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on Program Review and she is co-PI on an NSF grant aimed at enhancing the way departments engage in program review.
Works
- D. Damanik, M. Embree, J. Fillman, and M. Mei, Discontinuities of the Integrated Density of States for Laplacians Associated with Penrose and Ammann-Beenker Tilings, Exp. Math. 33 (2024), no.4, 588-610.
- S. H. Hong and M. Mei, The Game of Life on the Robinson Triangle Penrose Tiling: Still Life, J. Cell. Autom. 17 (2023) no. 3–4, 209–219.
- S. Chin-Parker, S. Cowling, and M. Mei, The Explanatory Value of Mathematical Information in Everyday Explanations, 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (2019) 1499–1505.
- B. Baker Swart, S. Crook, L. Hall-Seelig, H. G. Grundman, M. Mei, and L. Zack, Fixed Points of Augmented Generalized Happy Functions II: Oases and Mirages, J. Integer Seq. 22 (2019), no. 5, Art. 19.5.5.
- J. Fillman and M. Mei, Spectral properties of continuum Fibonacci Schrödinger operators, Ann. Henri Poincaré 19 (2018), no. 1, 237-247.
- B. Baker Swart, K. A. Beck, S. Crook, C. Eubanks-Turner, H. G. Grundman, M. Mei, and L. Zack, Fixed points of augmented generalized happy functions, Rocky Mountain J. Math. 48 (2018), no. 1, 47-58.
- M. Mei and A. Read-McFarland, Numbers and the heights of their happiness, Involve 11 (2018), no. 2, 235-241.
- B. Baker Swart, K. A. Beck, S. Crook, C. Eubanks-Turner, H. G. Grundman, M. Mei, and L. Zack, Augmented generalized happy functions, Rocky Mountain J. Math. 47 (2017), no. 2, 403-417.
- M. Mei and W. Yessen, Tridiagonal substitution Hamiltonians, Math. Model. Nat. Phenom. 9 (2014), no. 5, 204-238.
- M. Mei, Spectra of discrete Schrödinger operators with primitive invertible substitution potentials, J. Math. Phys. 55 (2014), no. 8, 082701, 22.
Other
Selected student research projects:
- R. Kang ‘26
An Introduction to the Characterization of Tilings - Z. Fang ‘23, R. Goel ‘24, M. Hong ‘22
The Game of Life on Penrose Tilings. - N. Harris ‘20, H. LeBlanc ‘20, and A. Tubbs ‘20
Algorithmic Investigation of Graph Laplacians Associated with Substitution Tilings - A. Read-McFarland ‘17
Numbers and the Heights of Their Happiness.
