Alexander Díaz-López

Alexander Diaz-Lopez, PhD, associate professor, Mathematics and Statistics in Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been named principal investigator on a two-year, $249,937 National Sciences Foundation Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences grant. The grant will support Dr. Diaz-Lopez’s project, “Combinatorics from an Algebraic and Geometric Lens,” which will study permutations from a combinatorial and geometric point of view.

Dr. Diaz-Lopez’s research interests are in algebra and combinatorics. This project seeks to describe the composition of permutations that share a given collection of properties and their spatial distribution when plotting these permutations in a Cartesian space. The second focus of the project is the study of arithmetical structures of graphs. Finally, the project will serve to create the Villanova-Puerto Rico Research Retreat, a collaboration research summer program between students at Villanova University and the University of Puerto Rico.

In 2021, Dr. Diaz-Lopez received a Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America. This national award recognizes faculty whose teaching has been extraordinarily successful and whose effectiveness in teaching mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms. In addition, Dr. Diaz-Lopez is active in graduate teaching and mentoring at the University and has been instrumental in developing programs that prepare underrepresented students for graduate school.

Dr. Diaz-Lopez received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.