“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty.”— Bertrand Russell
Education
B.A., Western Michigan University, 1996
M.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004
Biography
David Murphy is an professor of mathematics at Hillsdale College. He obtained his B.A. in mathematics from Western Michigan University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before coming to Hillsdale, he taught for three years at nearby Kalamazoo College.
His research has been in the areas of algebraic geometry, representation theory, and invariant theory. He also has interests in the philosophy of mathematics and in recreational mathematics. He coauthored a textbook, Algebraic Geometry: A Problem Solving Approach, that was published in 2013 by the American Mathematical Society.
In 2016, Dr. Murphy received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Michigan section of the Mathematical Association of America. This is only the third time it has been awarded to a professor at a liberal arts college and the first one awarded to a Hillsdale College professor.