Erin Ellefsen, Ph.D.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder
• M.S., University of Colorado Boulder
• B.A., Luther College

Why do you teach at Earlham?

I am very passionate about liberal arts. I got my graduate degree with the intention of teaching at a liberal arts institution, and upon coming to Earlham, I really identified with Earlham’s principles and practices. Community, respect for persons, integrity, peace and justice, and simplicity are very alive throughout campus and they truly enhance the liberal arts education. In addition, the classroom experience and relationship between students and professors is unparalleled!

Professional memberships

• Association for Women in Mathematics
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Research projects

My research is in mathematical biology. Specifically, I study differential equations with nonlocal forces (forces that happen at long distances). This has included projects in territory development of social groups of meerkats, seed dispersal and germination, and I am currently starting a project in invasive species management. Some of these projects have included connecting the mathematical models with observed data.

Published works

2021 Erin Ellefsen, Nancy Rodríguez; “On equilibrium solutions to nonlocal mechanistic models in ecology”, Journal of Applied Analysis and Computation, 2021

2020 Erin Ellefsen, Nancy Rodríguez; “On some theory of monostable and bistable pure birth-jump integro-differential equations”, Ecological Complexity, 2020

2019 Allison Arnold-Roksandich, Brian Diaz, Erin Ellefsen, Holly Swisher; “Extending a catalog of mock and quantum modular forms to an infinite class”, Research in Number Theory, 2019.