Axel Brandt
Associate Professor
Background
After starting undergrad as a mathematics education major, the "maths after calculus" was so fascinating that I switched paths in favor of one leading toward mathematics graduate programs. During my master's I was introduced to the mathematical field of Graph Theory, which became my area of mathematical training. This area of mathematics is very accessible for conducting research as an undergraduate student, so don't hesitate to ask me about potential opportunities or projects!
When I'm not in the college classroom, you might find me helping undergraduate students prepare for their future careers or making advanced mathematics accessible to students in the K-12 environment. In 2024, my teaching was recognized by the Mathematical Association of America through a national award for early-career faculty who demonstrate "extra ordinarily successful" teaching that is "shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms."
Areas of Expertise
My formal training is in Graph Theory, which examines structure in complex networks. Recently, I have taken some interest in the mathematics of Alternative Voting Methods (e.g. Ranked Choice, but I'd generally advocate for different methods).
I love collaborating on projects and am open to ideas, especially with and from students!
Research Interests
There are two types of research topics I've done recently with students. You can think about them as:
- determining who has better strategy in a game of "chase tag" (yes, like what you did on the elementary school playground) played on various connect-the-dots (yes, like what you did in a childhood activity book), and
- determining the minimum size of a Crayola box that you would need in order to create a paint-by-number on various connect-the-dots (yes, more childhood activity book stuff) where there are rules about where colors can go.
Education
- Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Denver
- M.S. in Mathematics, Miami University
- B.S. in Mathematics, Ohio Northern University
Courses Taught
If it has an MT in front of it, then I've probably taught it. Recently, I habitually teach Calculus, Linear Algebra, and various upper-level mathematics courses.Publications
(underlined co-author indicates undergraduate student at time of research)- Runner Locating with Multiple Probes (with K. Akinrele, E. Breen, C. Erbes, M. Lee, P. O'Doherty, and W. Rainer) Australas. J. Combin. 93(2), 318-338, 2025.
- List-Antimagic Labeling of Vertex-Weighted Graphs (with Z. Berikkyzy, S. Jahanbekam, V. Larsen, and D. Rorabaugh) Discrete Math. Theor. Comput. Sci, 23(3), 2021.
- Additive List Coloring of Planar Graphs with Given Girth (with S. Jahanbekam and J. White) Discuss. Math. Graph Theory, 40(3), 855-873, 2020.
- Planar Graphs with Girth 20 are Additively 3-Choosable (with N. Tenpas and C. Yerger) Discrete Appl. Math. 277, 14-21, 2020.
- An Alternative Approach for Bounding the Additive Choice Number (with N. Tenpas and C. Yerger) Congr. Numer. 231, 157-163, 2018.
- A Robber Locating Strategy for Trees (with J. Diemunsch, C. Erbes, J. LeGrande, and C. Moffatt) Discrete Appl. Math. 232C,99-106, 2017.
- Stability and Turan Numbers of a Class of Hypergraphs via Lagrangians (with D. Irwin and T. Jiang) Comb. Probab. Comp. 26(3), 367-405, 2017.
- I,F-Partitions of Sparse Graphs (with M. Ferrara, M. Kumbhat, S. Loeb, D. Stolee, and M. Yancee) European J. Combin. 57, 1-12, 2016.
- Local Gap Colorings form Edge Labelings (with B. Moran, K. Nepal, F. Pfender, and D. Sigler) Australas. J. Combin. 65(3), 200-211, 2016.
