mathematics

Nancy Neudauer

Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer rather than just read about it. In short: Nancy Ann Neudauer is an American mathematician specializing in matroid theory and known for her work in mathematical outreach in Africa and South America. She is a professor of mathematics at Pacific University, a co-director of the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics, and a former governor of the Pacific Northwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Nancy Ann Neudauer is an American mathematician specializing in matroid theory and known for her work in mathematical outreach in Africa and South America. She is a professor of mathematics at Pacific University, a co-director of the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics, and a former governor of the Pacific Northwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

Education Neudauer grew up in Milwaukee. She was an undergraduate business student at the University of Wisconsin, where she graduated with a double major in actuarial science and in Wisconsin's program in risk management and insurance. After originally planning to go from there to law school, she stayed at Wisconsin for a master's degree and PhD in mathematics. Her 1998 doctoral dissertation, The Transversal Presentations and Graphs of Bicircular Matroids, was supervised by Richard A. Brualdi.

Service Neudauer has been funded by the Simons Foundation, and multiple times by the Fulbright Program, to promote mathematics in Africa and South America by traveling there to teach students graduate-level mathematics, with the goal of better preparing them for graduate study abroad. Her work in Africa has also included helping to develop support networks for women in mathematics there. Neudauer was governor of the Pacific Northwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America from 2006 to 2009. She is a co-director of the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics.

Outreach Neudauer is known for her outreach work across America and Africa, receiving multiple Fulbright awards for her work supporting the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

Recognition In 2010 the Pacific Northwest Section gave Neudauer their annual Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. She was named as a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics, in the 2027 class of fellows, "for her far-reaching mentoring from the Global South to the Pacific Northwest which has influenced generations of women mathematicians".

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nancy Neudauer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer

In research: Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer 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: Nancy Neudauer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American women mathematicians, Educators from Milwaukee, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nancy Neudauer in simple terms?

Why does Nancy Neudauer 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 Nancy Neudauer?

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 Nancy Neudauer.