Erin McNicholas
Erin McNicholas
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Dr. Erin McNicholas is a full professor of mathematics at Willamette University. Before receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona she worked for the State of Oregon as a Metrologist and for the cryptography group at Sandia National Laboratory. As an algebraist, Professor McNicholas searches for symmetry in a wide variety of settings. In particular, she enjoys analyzing voting methods, cryptosystems, combinatorics, and graph theory through an algebraic lens. She is interested in courses and materials that integrate multiple mathematical perspectives, incorporate technology and applications, and generally humanize the subject. She co-authored the text Explorations in Number Theory - Commuting through the Numberverse and has developed courses on the history of mathematics and the design of escape rooms and mathematical puzzles. She has received teaching awards from the University of Arizona and Willamette University. In addition to her academic pursuits, Professor McNicholas enjoys painting and is a contributing artist for the second deck of EvenQuads playing cards, honoring notable women in mathematics.
Associate Dean for Faculty, Professor of Mathematics
Associate Dean for Faculty, Professor of Mathematics
College of Arts & Sciences, Willamette University
Need to see me? Check the calendar below for availability.
Need to see me? Check the calendar below for availability.
Student Hours, Fall '25 - By Appointment
Student Hours, Fall '25 - By Appointment
Looking for something to do?
Looking for something to do?
Attend an upcoming Math Colloquium
Check out other opportunities and fun things to do on my Opportunities & Community page, including opportunities for paid summer math research
Announcements & Recent Publications:
Announcements & Recent Publications:
"Voting on Relations Using Pairs Information", Karl-Dieter Crisman, Erin McNicholas, Kathryn L. Nyman, and Michael Orrison, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Volume 72, Number 9, October 2025
From ranking movies on a streaming service to selecting job candidates or training machine learning models, we constantly face the challenge of combining many individual preferences into a single, collective decision. In this article, we present an elegant mathematical framework that unifies a wide array of these decision-making methods, known as aggregation procedures. By treating preferences not just as simple rankings but as complex relationships — allowing for ties, outright preference, or even incomparability — we use tools from linear algebra and graph theory to draw unexpected connections between seemingly disparate voting systems. This novel perspective can be used to create a "tunable" family of voting procedures, much like filters in signal processing, that can be adjusted to amplify or diminish specific aspects of voter preferences, shedding new light on how collective choices are made.
Research Connections: Career and Research Journeys from the SMP Community Editors: Abra Brisbin, Karen Lange, Erin McNicholas, and Emilie Purvine, Spring (2025)
We dedicate this volume to Deanna Haunsperger and Stephen Kennedy, and to the many instructors, teaching assistants, students, and visiting mathematicians who made the Carleton Summer Mathematics Program for Women (SMP) a transformational experience for us the editors, and for so many other participants. By organizing this book to mirror the structure of SMP, integrating personal connections with mathematical inquiry and discovery, we hope to honor the mathematical curiosity, mentorship, and community that Deanna and Steve’s efforts have instilled.
What does math research really look like? Which subfield is right for me? Do people like me go to graduate school, and succeed? This book provides students a “sneak preview” of math research in a variety of subfields. Each chapter features the work of a different mathematician along with enough background material for an advanced undergraduate or early graduate student to understand the key ideas and get a sense for the styles of thinking involved in each subfield. Each chapter is prefaced by a short biography of the mathematician who wrote the chapter (all people connected to the Carleton College Summer Math Program for Women), providing advice and examples of paths from undergraduate education, through graduate school and beyond.
This book provides a source of ideas and starting points for in-class projects, independent studies, and student talks as well as supplementary reading in courses. The profiles of early career mathematicians and statisticians at the beginning of each chapter are valuable as an advising resource for students considering graduate school, or to show students a diverse view of modern mathematicians in a “Math for Liberal Arts”-style course.
Last updated: 9/15/2025
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