Endowed Chair of Mathematics uses extensive research background to develop prepared students
Grambling, La. – August 25, 2023 – Grambling State University Endowed Chair of Mathematics Dr. Anjan Biswas sees himself as a connector searching to forge strong relationships with his students while also focusing on research and publishing.
Dr. Biswas, who has published thousands of papers and articles joined the GSU Department of Mathematics last year after previously serving on the faculties of Alabama A&M. Biswas earned his MA and Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of New Mexico and completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
His current research interest is in Mathematical Photonics in which he concentrates on soliton perturbation theory, quasi-stationary solitons, quasi-particle theory, variational principle as well as semi-inverse variational principle that are all applicable to the study of optical solitons.
And earlier this summer Dr. Biswas, who mentors junior faculty at GSU, was invited to give a seminar presentation at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa.
Dr. Biswas earned his Bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees in Calcutta, India, where his love for mathematics was first developed.
“I was always interested in Mathematics since I was a kid growing up in India,” Biswas said. “When I came to this country from India to work on my PhD in Mathematics from the University of New Mexico and then did postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado, that sparked my love of math and being able to use it to help create a better world really sparked up.
“My postdoctoral professor at Colorado State gave me all kinds of insightful thoughts and kind of enlightened me. He always encouraged me and that’s where I picked up all of these modern ‘mathematical marvels’ as some may call it. And I’ve been exploring those on a daily basis ever since.”
Biswas said a chance to concentrate more on research was a big reason why he jumped on the opportunity when offered the endowed professor at Grambling State.
“Teaching was a big part of my earlier positions, so much so to the degree that it made it hard to delve into research as much as I do here,” Biswas said. “I teach two classes here at Grambling State and the rest is all research, which has helped me to produce more publications.
“And I’m looking for students who want to be excited about being involved. I supervised senior projects for four different students while I was at Alabama A&M and all their papers were published in doctoral journals. So, I’m looking for those kinds of students at Grambling State, where I can supervise them and help them publish their research, too.”
Dr. Biswas said his prolific publishing isn’t about presenting his research to students and fellow educators, but also to help Grambling State University become recognized as a leading university in the field of mathematics.
“I see my role as trying to help put Grambling State University on the mathematical map through my publishing, and hopefully through future publications from some of our students,” Biswas said. “We want people to know all this kind of research is being done at Grambling State University, and it’s the published papers that make that happen.
“So hopefully a couple of years down the road, when I have so many papers published through research done here, and hopefully some papers published by some of our students, also, you will see Grambling State’s name grow not only in the job market, but also the research market and the teaching situation.”
Dr. Biswas’ most recent paper was published on Aug. 16.
“It’s about optical bullets,” Biswas said. “But it’s nothing to fear. An optical bullet is a floating ball of light and can be used to send or receive information from remote places through optic fibers.
“I’m only involved in the mathematical processes used to try and make that happen. So the paper I just published is about how it is mathematically possible to make that happen. And there are more papers in the pipeline being worked on. I publish lots and lots of papers because I have a lot of ideas that I talk about and work on with collaborators from all over the world.”