Auburn mathematics professor awarded prestigious Leverhulme Visiting Professor to teach at Oxford University

Henry “Hal” Schenck, professor and the Rosemary Kopel Brown Chair in Auburn's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, has been awarded a prestigious 2023 Leverhulme Visiting Professor by the Leverhulme Trust, a national grant-making organization in the United Kingdom, or UK, that advances research and education.

As part of the award, Schenck will travel to Oxford University to teach several mini-courses on various mathematics topics, including computational algebra and syzygies, toric varieties and computational algebra for topological data analysis. 

“The College of Sciences and Mathematics is extremely proud that Professor Schenck has been awarded the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at Oxford,” said Ed Thomas, College of Sciences and Mathematics interim dean. “This not only recognizes Hal for his expertise as an excellent and accomplished mathematician, but it also helps to build strong research relationships between Auburn and Oxford University.

A leading expert on computational algebra, Schenck is among a handful of international scientists selected to participate in the professorship and will work alongside other faculty researchers to advance knowledge among Oxford’s students and academic staff. Schenck also will deliver colloquia and a series of department seminars, known as Leverhulme Lectures, to share his research expertise and foster joint research efforts.

With a background in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, Schenck’s research areas focus on approximation theory, interpolation, geometric modeling, topological data analysis and trading networks. In addition to authoring four books and more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, Schenck maintains a strong track record of mentoring graduate students and fostering undergraduate research, having supervised 10 doctoral dissertations and overseen five postdoctoral researchers.

“The Leverhulme Professorship is a great honor,” said Schenck. “I’m very excited at the opportunity to spend time at Oxford and to build research and teaching connections between our institutions.”

A U.S. Army veteran and active member of Auburn’s Student Veterans Association, Schenck has held faculty positions at Auburn University, Iowa State University, the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University. He holds an undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s and a doctoral degree from Cornell University.