Teaching

This year, I’m delighted to return to the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science as a visiting associate professor. I first came to Rhodes in 1988 and was a member of the faculty for thirteen years.

While at Rhodes previously, I taught courses in Abstract Algebra, Topology, Graph Theory, Combinatorics, Linear Algebra, Calculus, Probability and Statistics, and Modeling with Mathematica.  I have a keen interest in developing ways to reach mathematics students who typically might be afraid of mathematics and struggle with abstraction. As a consequence of this interest, I developed and taught a course in elementary cryptology for non-math majors that is still taught at Rhodes. To support this course development, I wrote (and was the principal investigator for) an NSF Course and Curriculum Development grant entitled “Cryptography, The Science of Secret Writing:  An Innovative Approach to Introductory Mathematics for Non-Science Majors.”  This grant was funded for three years starting in 1996. I’m very proud to have been the first of an ever-growing number of female scientists to have received tenure at Rhodes College.

Service

After taking a year-long sabbatical as Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne in  Melbourne, Australia, I served as chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science before moving into administrative affairs. I served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.  In that position, I served as Interim Chair of the Departments of Art and Music, Director of Postgraduate Scholarships, Directory of New Faculty Orientation, and Editor and Steering Committee member for the SACS reaccreditation strategic study and compliance report in 1997-1999.

While at Rhodes previously, I also served as President of Rhodes Phi Beta Kappa (Gamma Chapter of Tennessee) for three years.  I served on many faculty committees, including the Faculty Executive Committee, Board of Trustees Educational Policy Committee, and the Faculty Curriculum Summer Work Group.

Research

My research is in the area of Hamiltonian properties and adjacency conditions in graphs. I have a number of publications in these areas in journals like Discrete Mathematics and the Journal of Graph Theory. Additionally, I have served as a referee for several professional journals and as a reviewer of National Science Foundation Course and Curriculum Development (NSF CCD) grants. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the top researchers in graph theory, including Paul Erdos, Ralph Faudree, Ronald Gould, Richard Schelp, Linda Lesniak, and Nick Wormald. As a result, my Erdos number is two!

Personal Interests

My primary focus outside of my professional work is my family. I’m married to Gary Lindquester, professor of biology and chair of the biology department at Rhodes. I have three children—Will, Eric, and Abigail—who keep me quite busy with their interesting and constantly-changing lives. In my spare time—and I never seem to have any of it—I enjoy antique bottle collecting, researching the history of my family, studying American history, NFL football, and travel.