Mark W. Johnson's Homepage

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Penn State Altoona


Office
Dr. Johnson's office is 113 Hawthorn, which is in the first floor office wing.
Contact Information
The best way to contact Dr. Johnson is via email, at mwj3@psu.edu. Alternatively, you could call his office at (814) 949-5758 (simply extension 5758 from any campus phone).
Regular mail
Mark W. Johnson
Penn State Altoona
3000 Ivyside Park
Altoona, PA 16601-3760
Office Hours
Regular office hours will be held MW 10:00--10:50 AM, TR 11:00--11:50 AM, or by appointment. Students should consider these times as a standing appointment with the instructor and take advantage of this opportunity to have questions answered or to receive help with background difficulties. Dr. Johnson is also available at certain other times by appointment, so if you cannot make any of these times, ask to meet him at another time.
Teaching
This fall semester, Dr. Johnson is teaching Math 40.
Academic Advising
This advising page is intended as a starting point for Altoona students planning to earn their degree from the Smeal College of Business.
Outreach and Community Service
This is a description of work with area high school teachers, where the primary focus is to make college faculty into a resource for high school teachers in the same discipline. Among other things, Dr. Johnson spent a semester teaching a course at one area high school.
Mathematical Research
Dr. Johnson's reasearch area is in algebraic topology, but includes fairly broad interests within that field.
BSF Grant Information
A collaborative research proposal with David Blanc (U. Haifa), Jim Turner (Calvin C.) has been funded for 2007 through 2011 by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), including a postdoctoral position.
Conference Information
Dr. Johnson is the corresponding organizer of an American Mathematical Society special session at the Jan. 2009 annual Joint Mathematics Meetings, in Washington, D.C.
Computer Science Research
An important question in theoretical computer science is to find a denotational semantics (that is, a formal mathematical framework) for analyzing theoretical constructs such as protocols. Ongoing efforts to propose categorical options are included here.

Comments and questions on this website should be addressed to Dr. Mark W. Johnson.