Niagara University Senior Publishes Paper in Math Research Journal

A research paper by Niagara University senior math major Joseph Martino will be published in the mathematics research journal Integers in May. The paper, "Rational numbers with two-term odd greedy expansion," which he co-authored with Dr. Joel Louwsma, associate professor of mathematics, studies the odd greedy algorithm, a procedure that seeks to write rational numbers as sums of fractions that have the number 1 as numerator and an odd number as denominator.

The publication is the culmination of a project that Martino began in the summer of 2022. He presented some of his results at several conferences, including the Mathematical Association of America Seaway Section Meeting in October 2022, the national Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston in January 2023, and the NU Undergraduate Research Conference in May 2023. This work has also resulted in a second paper that is currently under review at another journal.

"I have been extremely lucky to work alongside Dr. Louwsma on our soon-to-be-published research throughout my time at college," said Martino, will begin a graduate program in biostatistics at the University at Buffalo in the fall. "He reached out to me over the summer going into my sophomore year about looking at the mathematical topic of Egyptian fractions, and my eager acceptance led to over a year's worth of collaboration. I have been able to learn an incredible amount from applying the material we have worked on in our mathematical proof classes, and I truly believe that I am a better mathematician because of this."

"It has been a privilege to work with Joe on this project and see him grow as a mathematician," said Dr. Louwsma. "He frequently came to me with pages of notes about interesting patterns he had observed; he was then able to distill these observations into the results described in this paper. Through this project, Joe has experienced the full process of doing research, including discovering and refining results, writing and revising papers, and presenting at conferences. This will serve him well in his graduate studies and beyond."