W. Patrick Hooper

(He/him)

Professor, Chair, Lead Applied Math Advisor

Chair of the Department of Mathematics

Main Affiliation

Mathematics

Areas of Expertise/Research

  • Dynamical Systems
  • Geometry
  • Low-Dimensional Topology

Building

Marshak Science Building

Office

MR 209A

Fax

212-650-6294

Email

whooper@ccny.cuny.edu

Website

http://wphooper.github.io

W. Patrick Hooper

Biography

I was an undergraduate math major at the University of Maryland, where I did some work in the Experimental Geometry Lab, where I was interested in geometric structures and in dynamical systems arising from constructions in classical geometry. I was a graduate student at Stony Brook, where I learned low dimensional topology and geometry, including hyperbolic geometry and Teichmüller theory. I spent two years visiting Yale and completed my dissertation under the direction of Yair Minsky. My dissertation was interested in the dynamical behavior of billiards in polygons and connections to Teichmüller theory. I received my PhD in 2006 from Stony Brook. I spent a little over three years as a Boas Assistant Professor at Northwestern, where I learned Dynamical systems and Ergodic theory. I came to City College in the spring of 2010. City College and CUNY have offered me the opportunity to continue to develop my mathematical background, to teach interesting classes, and to interact with interesting students.

Education

PHD, Mathematics, Stony Brook University, 2006.

M.A., Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, 2001.

B.S., Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, 2001.

Research Interest

I study dynamical systems defined by piecewise continuous maps which preserve some nice structure (such as a metric) away from their discontinuities on the phase space. This subject is frequently motivated by connections to geometry. Indeed the simplest such systems, interval exchange maps, are closely related to Teichmüller theory. For many nice spaces, the group of isometries of a space is quite rigid making a dynamical analysis of the action of an isometry uninteresting. By considering piecewise continuous isometries, we obtain a richer class of dynamical systems which give rise to new dynamical phenomena. The goal of his research is to better understand these systems from a topological or ergodic theoretic point of view.

Appointments

  • Professor, Department of Mathematics, City College of New York, 2017-present
  • Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, City College of New York, 2014-2017
  • Member of the Doctoral Faculty, Department of Mathematics, CUNY Graduate Center, 2013-present
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, City College of New York, 2010-2014
  • Ralph Boas Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Northwestern University, 2006-2009
  • Visiting Assistant in Research, Department of Mathematics, Yale University, 2004-2006

Publications