Functional Collaboration:

Soon after my Ph.D. (1992), I did some work on the foundations of quantum mechanics. My interest in foundations also is seen in my 2003 article on progress in mathematics, as well as results in special relativity. More recently, I am mainly looking to the dynamics of progress in mathematics, the sciences and the academy as a whole. I am especially focused on work that contributes toward understanding and implementation of functional collaboration, a discovery of the 20th century scholar Bernard.

Mathematics Pedagogy:

My initial work here includes elementary implications for teaching, based on observations about types of understanding in mathematics. These results were thanks to help taken from Bernard Lonergan’s book Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. Other articles in mathematics pedagogy include sample lessons in calculus and differential equations. In those co-authored articles, we tried to both take advantage of and bring out some details of dynamics of learning. Such work is relevant to mathematics education but also provides data for foundational development more generally.

Pure and Applied Mathematics:

After my Ph.D. (1992), my published work includes: some results in C*-algebras and operator theory (historically, the mathematics that emerged from quantum mechanics); collaborative work on applications of Lie groups to solution sets of differential equations; joint work on population dynamics in mathematical biology (HIV, and tumor growth); and then other joint work in mathematical biochemistry, random walks, identifying active sites of proteins, and the development of elementary computational methods for random walks and data bases.

Terrance J. Quinn

Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132
terrance.quinn@mtsu.edu
Office: 615-898-2280