Dr. Kathryn McCormick, February 2026 Snapshot

Published February 11, 2026

Dr. Kathryn McCormick, an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics and Statistics Department, and her students work with theoretical mathematics research in operator algebras. If you've taken a high school science class, you've probably been exposed a little to what research looks like in the lab sciences, but most people don't have a picture in their heads of what theoretical mathematics research is (or even know that it exists).

Kathryn McCormick writing a calculation
Dr. McCormick adds to a calculation.
Diego explaining a concept in front of a whiteboard
Graduate student Diego Monroy explains a step in a mathematics proof.

Math research is about solving problems as decontextualized as possible. Algebra uses symbols and letters instead of numbers in problems, so any numbers can be substituted to solve whatever problem is presented. Dr. McCormick's work with C* algebras takes this one step further to help analyze a generic problem that arises in quantum mechanics, wavelets, and signal processing among other areas. Solutions to these problems have an extremely wide variety and even can lead to better communication systems.

Dr. McCormick explaining a topic as student researcher takes notes
Dr. McCormick and Diego Monroy discuss the next research steps in the project.
Student researcher pointing to a section in a book that Dr. McCormick is holding
Graduate student Diego Monroy explains a theorem being applied in his work.

I find my area of mathematics research (operator algebras, and functional analysis as a whole) fun because of the variety it offers. It combines a lot of different areas of math (analysis, algebra, topology, dynamical systems, etc.) and so I'm always getting to play with new 'tools'.

Dr. Kathryn McCormick

Kathryn McCormick and student researcher
McCormick Lab: Dr. Kathryn McCormick and Diego Monroy