mathematics

Raegan Higgins

Raegan Higgins 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 Raegan Higgins rather than just read about it. In short: Raegan J. Higgins is an American mathematician and co-director of the EDGE Program.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Raegan J. Higgins is an American mathematician and co-director of the EDGE Program. She is also one of the co-founders of the website Mathematically Gifted & Black, which highlights the accomplishments of Black mathematicians.

Education Higgins went to Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln for her graduate studies studying under the advisement of Lynn Erbe and Allan Clemens Peterson. She graduated in 2008 and was one of the first two African-American women to earn a doctoral degree in Mathematics from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Higgins's doctoral dissertation was titled Oscillation theory of dynamic equations on time scales.

Career Higgins studies time scales and its application to mathematical biology. Higgins, along with Ami Radunskaya, is co-director of the EDGE program, which supports women who are pursuing graduate degrees and ultimately careers in the mathematical sciences. She participated in the EDGE program in 2002 as a graduate student. She was also a workshop facilitator from 2014 to 2017. Professor Higgins became co-director of the program in 2017. In 2008, Higgins joined the faculty at Texas Tech University in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics. She earned tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor, becoming the first tenured African American in the department.

Honors and awards In 2020, Higgins received the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) service award. She has won several National Science Foundation grants for various programs in mathematical education. She also earned the 2021 AWM Gweneth Humphreys Award. She co-delivered an invited plenary address at the 2021 National Math Festival. Higgins' accomplishments earned her recognition by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2018 Honoree.

Selected publications Higgins, Raegan (2016). "Asymptotic and Oscillatory Behavior of Dynamic Equations on Time Scales". In Letzter, Gail; Lauter, Kristin; Chambers, Erin; Flournoy, Nancy; Grigsby, Julia Elisenda; Martin, Carla; Ryan, Kathleen; Trivisa, Konstantina (eds.). Advances in the Mathematical Sciences. Association for Women in Mathematics Series. Vol. 6. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 341–355. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-34139-2_16. ISBN 978-3-319-34139-2. Higgins, Raegan; Mills, Casey J.; Peace, Angela (November 7, 2020). "A Time Scales Approach for Modeling Intermittent Hormone Therapy for Prostate Cancer". Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 82 (11): 145. doi:10.1007/s11538-020-00821-z. ISSN 1522-9602. PMID 33159603.

References

External links Home page Video interview at Meet a Mathematician!

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raegan Higgins

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raegan Higgins 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 Raegan Higgins 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 Raegan Higgins 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 Raegan Higgins

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Raegan Higgins in simple terms?

Raegan J. Higgins is an American mathematician and co-director of the EDGE Program.

Why does Raegan Higgins 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 Raegan Higgins?

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 Raegan Higgins.