mathematics

Leslie Hogben

Leslie Hogben is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leslie Hogben rather than just read about it. In short: Leslie Hogben is an American mathematician specializing in graph theory and linear algebra, and known for her mentorship of graduate students in mathematics. She is a professor emerita of mathematics at Iowa State University, where she held the Dio Lewis Holl Chair in Applied Mathematics 2012–2020; she was also professor (by courtesy) of electrical and computer engineering at Iowa State, associate dean for graduate…

Key takeaways

Leslie Hogben belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Leslie Hogben to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Leslie Hogben from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Leslie Hogben is an American mathematician specializing in graph theory and linear algebra, and known for her mentorship of graduate students in mathematics. She is a professor emerita of mathematics at Iowa State University, where she held the Dio Lewis Holl Chair in Applied Mathematics 2012–2020; she was also professor (by courtesy) of electrical and computer engineering at Iowa State, associate dean for graduate studies and faculty development of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State (2019–2024). Since 2007 she has worked part-time for the American Institute of Mathematics, initially as associate director for diversity (2007–2024) and now as Director of Research Communities (2024–present).

Education and career Hogben graduated summa cum laude in 1974 from Swarthmore College, and completed her Ph.D. in 1978 at Yale University. Her dissertation, Radical Classes of Jordan Algebras, concerned ring theory and was supervised by Nathan Jacobson. She joined Iowa State University as a tenure-track instructor in 1978. There, she was tenured in 1983, promoted to full professor in 2006, and given the Dio Lewis Holl Chair in 2012, and retired in 2024. She added her courtesy appointment in electrical and computer engineering in 2013. She was named associate dean in 2019. She retired from Iowa State in 2024 and is now a Professor Emerita. Hogben became associate director for diversity at the American Institute of Mathematics in 2007 and transitioned to become Director of Research Communities (a new AIM program) in 2024. In 2024 Hogben was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Purdue University (a courtesy affiliation with no duties).

Books Hogben is the editor of the Handbook of Linear Algebra (CRC Press, 2007; 2nd ed., 2014) and edited several other books. She is the author (with Jephian Lin and Bryan Shader) of Inverse Problems and Zero Forcing for Graphs (AMS, 2022) and the author of the textbook Elementary Linear Algebra (West Publishing, 1987).

Recognition The Association for Women in Mathematics has included her in the 2020 class of AWM Fellows for "being an endless champion for women in mathematics for nearly 40 years; for her outstanding record of involvement in programs to promote equal treatment and equal opportunities for women and minorities in mathematics". In 2020, she was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in the Section on Mathematics. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in the 2024 class of fellows.

Personal life Hogben is the daughter of C. A. M. Hogben, a physiologist at George Washington University and later the University of Iowa. She is the granddaughter of British zoologist and medical statistician Lancelot Hogben and of his wife, demographer Enid Charles. She married mathematician Mark Hunacek, who became a teaching professor at Iowa State after many years as an assistant attorney general for the State of Iowa.

References

External links Home page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leslie Hogben

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leslie Hogben claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leslie Hogben before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leslie Hogben ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leslie Hogben

In research: Leslie Hogben appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leslie Hogben in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leslie Hogben is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American mathematicians, 20th-century American women mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leslie Hogben outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Leslie Hogben in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leslie Hogben means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Leslie Hogben out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leslie Hogben in simple terms?

Why does Leslie Hogben matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leslie Hogben?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leslie Hogben.