• I was born and raised in California, and moved to Texas in 2006 to take a job at Trinity. I have lived in only four cities in my life, but each has begun with "San" and each one has been further south and east than the previous one. After five straight years of 75 and sunny in San Diego, I am still trying to figure out the weather in San Antonio, which I have been told is a losing proposition.

    I have been doing some form of teaching since 1999, when I ran calculus workshops as an undergrad at Cal Poly. Since then I have also been a T.A. at UCSD, and I was the Head T.A. my final year of grad school. I also taught math and stats for a year at Miramar Junior College. When I decided I wanted to go into academia, many people told me that they thought I would end up a teacher someday.

    • Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, San Diego
    • M.S. in Applied Mathematics, University of California, San Diego
    • B.S. in Mathematics, California Polytechnic State University
    • "m-Partition Boards & Poly-Stirling Numbers", published in the Journal of Integer Sequences

    My research is in the area of Enumerative Combinatorics, or The Art of Counting. A typical problem that a combinatorialist would consider is: "Given that 10 people will be running a race with no ties, how many ways can the runners finish first-second-third?" (If you got 720, good job!)

    • Combinatorics
    • Modern Algebra
    • Number Theory

    Brian runs the Math Department's Problem of the Week, as well as advising the University's Putnam Exam team.