Owen Byer

Owen joined the Eastern Mennonite faculty in 1999 after teaching at Northwestern College (Iowa) for three years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with secondary certification at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Delaware in Newark. His graduate training is in combinatorics, and he has recently starting writing a Discrete Math textbook with Deirdre Smeltzer and Felix Lazebnik. He coauthored the geometry textbook Methods for Euclidean Geometry, published in 2010 by MAA. His hobbies include playing basketball, bridge, and watching NFL football. Owen and his wife Barbara married in January 1990, with son Cameron born in 1998 and daughter Lily in 2001. The family attends Weavers Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va.

• B.A. in Mathematics, with secondary education certification, from Messiah College, 1989.
• M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Delaware, 1996, under the direction of Felix Lazebnik. Thesis: Several Results on Extremal (v,e)-graphs.

• A 3-D Analog of Steiner’s Porism, under review with Math Magazine, (joint with Deirdre L. Smeltzer)
• Methods for Euclidean Geometry, a 480-page book, published by Mathematical Association of America in 2010 (joint with Deirdre L. Smeltzer and Felix Lazebnik).
• Exploring Loci in Geometry, Proceedings of the Sixteenth Conference of the ACMS (2007), pp 114-140. (joint with Deirdre L. Smeltzer)
• Edge bounds in nonhamiltonian k-connected graphs, Discrete Mathematics 307 (2007), pp.1572-1579. (joint with Deirdre L. Smeltzer)
• Mathematics Competency, a booklet used in EMU’s Foundations of Mathematics course, May 2007. (joint with Deirdre L. Smeltzer)
• Observations on the Indeterminacy of the Sample Correlation Coefficient, College Mathematics Journal, Volume 33 (September 2002), pp. 320-322.
• Mental Arithmetic, Finding Squares, Mathematics Teacher, Volume 6 (September 2002), page 406.
• Maximum Number of 3-paths in a Graph, ARS Combinatoria, Volume 61 (2001), pp. 73-79.
• Two Path Extremal Graphs and an Application to a Ramsey-type Problem, Discrete Mathematics, Volume 196 (1999), pp. 51-64.
• Some New Bounds on the Maximum Number of Vertex Colorings of a (v,e)-Graph, Journal of Graph Theory, Volume 28 (1998), pp. 115-128.
• Maximum Number of 4-cliques in a 4-partite Graph, Bulletin of ICA, Volume 21 (1997), pp. 27-32.

• Applications of Circular and Spherical Inversions, with Deirdre L. Smeltzer, Joint Meeting of the AMS and MAA, New Orleans, January 6, 2011.

• Judge of Poster Session, SUMS Conference, James Madison University, October 22, 2011.
• Reviewer for Mathematical Reviews.
• Mathcounts Coach, Eastern Mennonite Middle School.
• Guest lecturer, Eastern Mennonite High School, in Advanced Placement Calculus class, May 2012.
• Director of Harrisonburg Duplicate Bridge Club.
• Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee, Weavers Mennonite Church.
• Writer of GRE mathematics questions for ETS (stipend received for this work.).

• Mathematical Association of America
• Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

• Joint Meeting of the AMS and MAA, Boston, January 4-7, 2012
• SUMS Conference, James Madison University, October 22, 2011.
• Joint Meeting of the AMS and MAA, New Orleans, January 9-12, 2011.
• MAA Sectional Meeting, George Mason University, November 6, 2010.
• SUMS Conference, James Madison University, September 23, 2010.

• Member of Committee on Teacher Education
• Member of TEAC (subcommittee for COTE)
• Member of Faculty Conference Planning Committee
• Member of Faculty Scholarship Committee
• Member of Mennonite Higher Education Faculty Conference Planning Committee
• Guest Lecture to EMU Investment Club (both Fall and Spring)