Jessica Sklar

As a high school student, Sklar studied poetry at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She did her undergraduate studies at Swarthmore College, where her mother Elizabeth S. had earned a degree in English (later becoming an English professor at Wayne State University) and her father Lawrence Sklar had taught philosophy. Jessica completed a double major in English and mathematics in 1995.[2][3]

Next, Sklar moved to the University of Oregon for graduate study in mathematics, earning a master's degree in 1997 and completing her Ph.D. there in 2001.[4] Her dissertation, Binomial Rings and Algebras, was supervised by Frank Wylie Anderson.[5]

She has been a faculty member in the mathematics department at Pacific Lutheran since 2001.[2]

Combining her interests in mathematics and art she is one of 24 mathematicians and artists who make up the Mathemalchemy Team.[6][7]

• “‘Bok bok’: exploring the game of Chicken in film,” with Jennifer F. Nordstrom. In: Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences. Ed. Bharath Sriraman. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2020.[8]
• “‘Elegance in design’: mathematics and the works of Ted Chiang.” In: Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences. Ed. Bharath Sriraman. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2020.[8]
• “Disciple” (poem). Journal of Humanistic Mathematics 7(2) (July 2017), 418.
• First-Semester Abstract Algebra: A Structural Approach. GNU Free Documentation License, 2017.
• “A confused electrician uses Smith normal form,” with Tom Edgar. Mathematics Magazine 89(1) (2016), 3–13.
• Mathematics in Popular Culture: Essays on Appearances in Film, Literature, Games, Television and Other Media.[9] Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2012. Editor, with Elizabeth S. Sklar.
• “The graph menagerie: abstract algebra and the Mad Veterinarian,” with G. Abrams. Mathematics Magazine 83(3) (2010), 168–179.
• “Dials and levers and glyphs, oh my! Linear algebra solutions to computer game puzzles.”Mathematics Magazine 79(5) (2006), 360–367.
• "Binomial rings.” Communications in Algebra 32(4) (2004), 1385–1399.
• “Binomial algebras.” Communications in Algebra 30(4) (2002), 1961–1978.

Sklar was a winner of the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award of the Mathematical Association of America in 2011 for her paper with Gene Abrams, The Graph Menagerie: Abstract Algebra and the Mad Veterinarian.[10] The paper provides a general solution to a class of lattice reduction puzzles exemplified by the following one:[3]

"Suppose a mad veterinarian creates a transmogrifier that can convert one cat into two dogs and five mice, or one dog into three cats and three mice, or a mouse into a cat and a dog. It can also do each of these operations in reverse. Can it, through any sequence of operations, convert two cats into a pack of dogs? How about one cat?"

She was the July 2012 Author of the Month at Ada's Technical Books in Seattle, Washgington.

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• Jessica Sklar publications indexed by Google Scholar