Former PhD Students

2025

Peiqi Yang
Dissertation Title: Stochastic Approximation on Manifolds and Topological Data Analysis
Advisor: Hao Wu

Philip White
Dissertation Title: The Syntactic Characterization of Computability Theoretic Properties 
Advisor: Valentina Harizanov

Wangbo Luo
Dissertation Title: Generalized Ohta-Kawasaki Model: Theory and Numerics
Advisor: Yanxiang Zhao

2024

Guanning Zhang
Dissertation Title: Mathematical Topics in Block Copolymer
Advisor: Xiaofeng Ren

Keshav Srinivasan
Dissertation Title: Effective Ultrapowers of Computable Structures
Advisor: Valentina Harizanov

2023

Dario Verta
Dissertation Title: Computability theory: countable magmas and their properties
Advisor: Valentina Harizanov

2022

Gabriel Montoya Vega
Dissertation Title: A Historical Exploration of Knot Theory, Khovanov Homology, and Framing Changes of Links and Skein Modules
Advisor: Jozef Przytycki

Kevin Long
Dissertation Title: Some Problems on Matroid Invariants and Integer Polymatroids
Advisor: Joseph E. Bonin

Hyungjung Choi
Dissertation Title: Numerical Methods for Block Copolymer Systems with Long Range Interaction
Advisor: Yanxiang Zhao

Jingjing Xu
Dissertation Title: Analysis and Scientific Computing on Some Nonlocal PDEs
Advisor: Yanxiang Zhao

Dionne Ibarra
Dissertation Title: Framed links in 3-manifolds, its applications, and algebraic approaches to knot theory
Advisor: Jozef Przytycki

Jiayuan Wang
Dissertation Title: Factorization Combinatorics in Complex Reflection Groups
Advisor: Joel B Lewis

2021

Rhea Palak Bakshi
Dissertation Title: Skein Modules, Skein Algebras, and Their Ramifications
Advisor: Jozef Przytycki

Hyeeun Jang
Dissertation Title: "Directional expansiveness"
Advisor: E Arthur Robinson

Pavel Avdeyev
Dissertation Title: Mathematical Models of Ancestral Genome Reconstruction 
Advisor: Max Alekseyev

Xinyu Zhang
Dissertation Title: Approximation Methods of Caputo Derivatives and Their Applications to Non-local Porous Medium Equations.
Advisor: Maria Gualdani

2020

Jason Suagee
Dissertation Title: "Existence and Construction of Schnyder Orientations over a Large Class of Higher Genus Surface Triangulations."
Advisor: Lowell Abrams

Iva Bilanovic
Dissertation Title: “Detecting Properties of Algebraic and Relational Structures”
Advisor: Valentina Harizanov

Konstantinos Smpokos
Dissertation Title: “A Geometric Variational Problem on a Periodic Domain”
Advisor: Xiaofeng Ren

2019

Debdeep Bhattacharya
Dissertation Title: “Harmonic Analysis Techniques in Nonlinear Dispersive Equations and Signal Processing”
Advisor: Frank Baginski

Sujoy Mukherjee
Dissertation Title: “On Skein Modules and Homology Theories Related to Knots Theory”
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

2018

Kai Yang
Dissertation Title: Formation of Singularities in Nondispersive Partial Differential Equations
Advisor: Svetlana Roudenko and Yanxiang Zhao

Xiao Wang
Dissertation Title: Knot Theory and Algebraic Structures Motivated by and Applied to Knots
Advisor: Jozef Przytycki

Chong Wang
Dissertation Title: Analysis and Modeling of Self-organizing Systems with Long Range Interaction,
Advisor: Xiaofeng Ren and Yanxiang Zhao

Jiajun Lu
Dissertation Title: Pattern Formation in Binary  Systems with Long-range Interaction
Advisor: Frank Baginski

Chubo Deng
Dissertation Title: Stability in a Trend-depending price formation model
Advisor: Maria Gualdani

Trang Ha
Dissertation Title: “On Algorithmic Properties of Computable Magmas”
Advisor: Valentina Harizanov

Harpreet Bedi
Dissertation Title: “Cohomology of Line Bundles with Rational Degree”
Advisor: Yongwu Rong and Jozef H. Przytycki

2017

Sergey Aganezov
Dissertation Title: “Phylogenomics Meets Genome Assembly: From Evolutionary Analysis to Scaffolding”
Advisor: Max Alekeyev

Hakim Walker
Dissertation Title: Computable Isomorphisms of Directed Graphs and Trees
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Seung Yeop Yang
Dissertation Title: Khovanov Homology, Distributive Structure Homology and Applications to Knot Theory
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

2016

Yeyao Hu
Dissertation Title: Disc Assemblies and Spik Assemblies in inhibitory system
Advisor: Xiaofeng Ren

Lara El Sherif
Dissertation Title: Matchings of Intersection Graphs and the Maximum Genus Problem
Advisor: Lowell Abrams

2015 and Earlier

Leah Marshall (2015)
Dissertation:  Computability-Theoretic Properties of Partial Injections, Trees, and Nested Equivalences
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Jing Wang (2015)
Dissertation:  Homology of Small Categories and Its Applications
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

Thomas Jason Savitsky (2015)
Dissertation: Some Problems on Matroids and Integer Polymatroids
Advisor: Joseph E. Bonin

Carl Crawford Hammarsten (2015)
Dissertation: "Decorated Heegaard diagrams and combinatorial Heegaard  Floer homology"
Advisor: Alexander Shumakovitch

David Shoup (2015)
Dissertation: Half Disc Stationary Sets on the Boundary of a Binary Inhibitory System
Advisor: Xiaofeng Ren

Steven Schluchter (2014)
Dissertation: Ordinary Voltage Graphs In Pseusosurfaces And Derived Cellular Homology With Applications To Graph Embeddability.
Advisor: Lowell Abrams

Erblin Mehmetaj (2014)
Dissertation: On the r-Continued Fraction Expansions of Real Numbers
Advisor: E. Arthur Robinson, Jr.

Kai Maeda (2013)
Dissertation: Self-Distributive Magmas and Their Richter’s Degrees
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Joseph L Herning (2013)
PhD George Washington University 2013
Dissertation: Spectrum and Factors of Substitution Dynamical Systems
Advisor: E. Arthur Robinson, Jr.

Lu Xie (2013)
Dissertation: Analysis of the Long Range Interaction in the Ternary System
Advisor: Xiaofeng Ren

Ken Shoda (2012)
Dissertation: Large Families of Matroids with the Same Tutte Polynomial
Advisor: Joseph E. Bonin

Tyler White (2012)
Dissertation: Topologically Mixing Tilings of R^2 Generated by a Generalized Substitution
Advisor: E. Arthur Robinson, Jr.

Forest Fisher
PhD George Washington University 2010
Dissertation: CoZinbiel Hopf Algebras in Combinatorics
Advisor: William R. Schmitt

Hillary Einziger
PhD George Washington University 2010
Dissertation: Incidence Hopf Algebras: Antipodes, Forest Formulas, and Noncrossing Partitions
Advisor: William R. Schmitt

Michael J. Coleman
PhD George Washington University 2010
Dissertation: Surface Accuracy Analysis and Mathematical Modeling of Deployable Large Aperture Elastic Antenna Reflectors
Advisor: Frank E. Baginski

Jieun Lee
PhD George Washington University 2010
Dissertation: Modeling the Equilibrium Configuration of a Piecewise Orthotropic Pneumatic Envelope and the Phase Separation Problem in a Membrane
Advisors: Frank E. Baginski and Xiaofeng Ren

Radmila Sazdanović
PhD George Washington University 2009
Dissertation: Categorification of Knot and Graph Polynomials and the Polynomial Ring
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

Jennifer Chubb
PhD George Washington University 2009
Dissertation: Ordered Structures and Computability
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Kerry Luse
PhD George Washington University 2008
Dissertation: Invariants of Knots, Graphs, and Feynman Diagrams
Advisor: Yongwu Rong

Sarah Pingrey
PhD George Washington University 2008
Dissertation: Strong Degree Spectra of Relations
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Tanya Andress
PhD George Washington University 2007
Dissertation: The spectrum and the first Cech cohomology group of a one dimensional tiling dynamical system
Advisor: E. Arthur Robinson

Geoffrey McKenna
PhD George Washington University 2007
Dissertation: Graphs, Algebra, and Probability
Advisor: Daniel H. Ullman

Fanny Jasso-Hernandez
PhD George Washington University 2007
Dissertation: A Homological Algebraic Approach to the Tutte Polynomial
Advisor: Yongwu Rong

Michael Barg
PhD George Washington University 2007
Dissertation: Direct Methods in the Calculus of Variations with Applications to Tendon-Reinforced Piecewise-Isotropic Membranes
Advisor: Frank E. Baginski

Maciej Niebrzydowski
PhD George Washington University 2007
Dissertation: Some Applications of Quandles and their Homology to the Geometry of Knots
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

Eric Ufferman
PhD George Washington University 2006
Dissertation: Structures and Partial Computable Automorphisms
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Malgorzata Dabkowska
PhD George Washington University 2006
Dissertation: Turing Degree Spectra of Groups and Their Spaces of Orders
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Michael Veve
PhD George Washington University 2006
Dissertation: Skien Modules, Orderable Magmas, and Billiards
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

Laure Helme-Guizon
PhD George Washington University 2005
Dissertation: A Categorification of the Chromatic Polynomial
Advisor: Yongwu Rong

Amir Togha
PhD George Washington University 2004
Dissertation: On Automorphisms of Structures in Logic and Orderability of Groups in Topology
Advisors: Valentina S. Harizanov and Ali Enayat

Mieczyslaw Dabkowski
PhD George Washington University 2003
Dissertation:  Cubic Skein Modules and Burnside Groups
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

Rumen Dimitrov
PhD George Washington University 2002
Dissertation:  Computably Enumerable Vector Spaces, Dependence Relations, and Turing Degrees
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Krzysztof Wargan
PhD George Washington University 2002
Dissertation:  S-adic Dynamical Systems and Bratteli Diagrams
Advisor: E. Arthur Robinson, Jr.

David Hough
PhD George Washington University 2001
Dissertation:  The Genus of Partitions and C-trees
Advisors: Daniel H. Ullman and Frank Schmidt

Rachelle Ankney
PhD George Washington University 2001
Dissertation:  The geometries PG(n-1,q)\PG(k-1,q)
Advisor: Joseph E. Bonin

Amir Pirnazar
PhD George Washington University 2000
Dissertation:  Girth, genus and fractional coloring of graphs
Advisor: Daniel H. Ullman

Hongxun Qin
PhD George Washington University 2000
Dissertation: Tutte polynomials and matroid constructions
Advisor: Joseph E. Bonin

Maxim V. Sokolov
PhD George Washington University 2000
Dissertation: Quantum invariants, skein modules, and periodicity of 3-manifolds
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

Tatsuya Tsukamoto
PhD George Washington University 2000
Dissertation: The fourth skein module of 3-dimensional manifolds
Advisor: Jozef H. Przytycki

William Collier
PhD George Washington University 2000
Dissertation: Applications of variational principles to modeling a partially inflated scientific research balloon
Advisor: Frank E. Baginski

Clifford Hansen
PhD George Washington University 2000
Dissertation: Dynamics of muldimensional substitutions
Advisor: E. Arthur Robinson Jr.

Thomas Fitzkee
PhD George Washington University 1998
Dissertation: Weakly mixing tiling flows arising from interval exchange transformations
Advisor: E.Arthur Robinson Jr.

Jules Kouatchou
PhD George Washington University 1997
Dissertation: High-order multigrid techniques for partial differential equations
Advisor: Murli M. Gupta

Michael Edward McDaniel
PhD George Washington University 1997
Dissertation: Subspaces of Vassiliev invariants using cablings
Advisor: Yongwu Rong

Jun Zhang
PhD George Washington University 1997
Dissertation: Multigrid acceleration techniques and applications to the numerical solution of partial differential equations
Advisor: Murli M. Gupta

Sita Ramamurti
PhD George Washington University 1995
Dissertation: Dynamics near the essential singularity for zero-free entire vector fields of finite order
Advisor: Kevin Hockett

William P. Miller
PhD George Washington University 1995
Dissertation: Approaches to matroid reconstruction problems
Advisor: Joseph E. Bonin

Timothy McNicholl
PhD George Washington University 1995
Dissertation: The inclusion problem for generalized frequency classes
Advisor: Valentina S. Harizanov

Hassan Sedaghat
PhD George Washington University 1990
Dissertation: New constructions in semigroup compactification theory
Advisor: Hugo D. Junghenn

Karma Dajani
PhD George Washington University 1989
Dissertation: Simultaneous recurrence of weighted cocycles.
Advisor: E.Arthur Robinson, Jr.

Amir Afrasiab Maleki
PhD George Washington University 1985
Dissertation: Semigroups of quasicompact operators: Convergence and mean ergodic property
Advisor: Choy-Tak Taam

Thomas Lewrie Mifflin
PhD George Washington University 1984
Dissertation: Almost periodic selections
Advisor: Hugo D. Junghenn

Ramaiah Devadoss Pandian
PhD George Washington University 1983
Dissertation: Relatively almost periodic and distal semigroup compactifications and related fixed point theorems
Advisor: Hugo D. Junghenn

Tyler Henry Haynes (Jr)
PhD George Washington University 1983
Dissertation: Invariant means on semi-topological transformation semigroups
Advisor: Hugo D. Junghenn

Ali Saleh Arwini
PhD George Washington University 1982
Dissertation: Order compactness and complete regularity in topological preordered spaces
Advisor: Marvin D. Green

Amir Hamzeh Barzegar
PhD George Washington University 1981
Dissertation: Syntopological characterization of algebraic structures and Bohr syntopological group compactification
Advisor: Marvin D. Green

John Richard Tucker
PhD George Washington University 1980
Dissertation: Mixing, Ergodicity, and Amenability for Weekly Almost Periodic Semigroups
Advisor: Choy-Tak Taam

Steven Zalmon Kahn
PhD George Washington University 1980
Dissertation: Chromatic equivalence and chromatic uniqueness
Advisor: Ruth Aaronson Bari

Bao Ting Chen Lerner
PhD George Washington University 1979
Dissertation: C*-Algebra Compactifications of semidirect products of semitopological semigroups
Advisor: Hugo D. Junghenn

Arthur Valliere, III
PhD George Washington University 1979
Dissertation: On Matrices A such that AT is a Polynomial in A
Advisor: Irving J. Katz

Walter Lane Stanley
PhD George Washington University 1977
Dissertation: On the structure of the torsion subgroup of the group of units of a group ring
Advisor: Myrna Pike Lee

Henry Kwong Tan
PhD George Washington University 1977
Dissertation: Ergodic theorems and semigroups of *Homomorphisms on C* and W*-Algebras
Advisor: Choy-Tak Taam

Robert Edward O'Brien
PhD George Washington University 1977
Dissertation: Controllability and Stabilization of contraction semigroups on Hilbert spaces
Advisor: Choy-Tak Taam

Daniel Rucker Batigne
PhD George Washington University 1977
Dissertation: Integral Generalized Inverses of Integral Matrices
Advisor: Irving J. Katz

John Frank Schmeelk
PhD George Washington University 1976
Dissertation: Test surfunctions and generalized surfunctions
Advisor: Thomas Liverman

Lawrence Allen Lee
PhD George Washington University 1975
Dissertation: On chromatically equivalent graphs
Advisor: Ruth Aaronson Bari

David Schedler
PhD George Washington University 1971
Dissertation: On topologies determined by clustering sequences: a generalization of sequential space
Advisors: Hewitt Kenyon

Kim Ki-Hang Butler
PhD George Washington University 1970
Dissertation: On (0,1)-Matrix Semigroups
Advisors: Jin B. Kim

Hugo Dietrich Junghenn
PhD George Washington University 1970
Dissertation: Almost Periodic Compactifications and Applications to One-Parameter Semigroups
Advisor: Choy-Tak Taam

John Jones, Jr.
PhD George Washington University 1970
Dissertation: Properties of strong solutions of first and second order differential equations and inequalities in Hilbert space
Advisor: Thomas Liverman

Ruth Doris Koidan
Ph.D. George Washington University 1969
Dissertation: Convergence bases and subbases in general topology
Advisor: Hewitt Kenyon

John Kent Minichiello
Ph.D. George Washington University 1967
Dissertation: Negationless Intuitionistic mathematics
Advisor: David Nelson

Mahmoud Khairat Ahmed Khairat
Ph.D. George Washington University 1965
Dissertation: Some results for random elements taking values in a linear space
Advisor: Solomon Kullback

Hubert Whitman Lilliefors
Ph.D. George Washington University 1964
Dissertation: An Information Theoretic Application of Linear Discriminant Functionals to Stochastic Processes
Advisor: Solomon Kullback

Janos Edvard Hanson
Ph.D. George Washington University 1960
Dissertation: On linear sequence spaces which permit ommision and adjunction and have finite dimension modulo convergence
Advisor: Florence Marie Mears

Joseph Blum
Ph.D. George Washington University 1958
Dissertation: Banach Spaces Functionals and Matrix Summability Methods
Advisor: Florence Marie Mears

Valdemars Punga
Ph.D. George Washington University 1954
Dissertation: Affine connection in space of line elements
Advisor: James Henry Taylor

Robert Harrison Shaw
Ph.D. George Washington University 1952
Dissertation: On the proof of a theorem of Frobenius without the use of group characters
Advisor: Francis Edgar Johnston

Solomon Kullback
Ph.D. George Washington University 1934
Dissertation: An application of characteristic functions to the distribution problem of statistics
Advisor: Frank Weida

Abraham Sinkov
Ph.D. George Washington University 1933
Dissertation: Families of groups generated by two operators of the same orders
Advisor: Francis Edgar Johnston