Dr. Martin
                    Montgomery in Chicago

Welcome to the Homepage of Dr. Martin Montgomery.
 
Current Students:  Follow the links to the right to access more information regarding your class.  There is also a link to my Fall 2014 Schedule which you can use if you want to schedule an appointment.
To the right is a picture of me at The Bean (I guess its real name is Cloud Gate) in Chicago.


Brief Bio

In case you are curious about me, I grew up in South-Central-ish California, which probably explains my liberal use of the word "dude".  I went to college at Humboldt State University in Northern California where I took classes for about five majors before I settled on math.  I never really felt "good" at math, but it's such a weird combination of difficult and doable that I fell in love with it.  A great mathematician once said you never really understand math and I think "math discomfort" is a universal trait that makes us human.  I like to treat math like a really hard game (even harder than one of my favorites) that rewards persistence and focus.
I went to graduate school at the University of Oregon (GO DUCKS!) where I really didn't feel like I was good at math!  I got my doctorate in the field of algebra (if you are currious, my research interests are listed below).  After graduate school I got a job in Georgia, then left to go to Kentucky, then moved to Texas, returned to Kentucky again after two years, then finally made my way to Maine.
When I'm not doing math I like to hang out with my family and friends, watch t.v., play video games, read books, and enjoy beer.  I also enjoy exercise, mostly lifting weights and running.  If you ever see me exercising around campus feel free to say or wave hello.  I'm usually listening to some history podcast (my favorites are here, here, and here) but I don't mind being interrupted!  In case you also like podcasts, I would also recommend the ones here, here, here, and here.

Research interests: Noncommutative, associative rings and algebras.  In my dissertation I calculated a certain dimension associated to rings and algebras.  I continue to be interested in uses of this calculation, tinkering with something called The Cartan Determinant Conjecture from time to time, but lately my research interests have moved on to Leavitt Path Algebras.  These are structures with interesting algebraic properties and useful connections to other mathematical fields.

            ยท Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Publications

1.  Square-Free Rings and their Automorphism Groups, Communications in Algebra 38 (10) (2010) 3767-3789.
2. Non-Stable K-Theory For Leavitt Path Algebras, (with Damon Hay, Marissa Loving, Efren Ruiz, and Katherine Todd), to appear in the Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics.
3.  Square-Free Rings with Local Units, prepint.