Office SIC 212
Phone (516) 463-6106
Email Gretchen.Ostheimer@hofstra.edu

Gretchen Ostheimer received her B.A. in mathematics from Wellesley College in 1979. After ten years working in industry on systems software development, she entered in graduate school, receiving her Ph.D. in mathematics under the direction of Charles C. Sims in 1996. After a three year assistant professorship in the mathematics department at Tufts University, she joined the computer science faculty at Hofstra University, where she is now a full professor. Dr. Ostheimer's research interests are on the boundary of group theory and theoretical computer science. Her specific interests include decidability questions, practical algorithms and relationships between group theory and formal language theory, with an emphasis in all cases on achieving a better understanding of infinite solvable groups. True to her early training, Dr. Ostheimer is a tireless promoter of mathematics and computer science in liberal arts education. She uses writing to teach mathematics and computer science, and she uses mathematics and computer science to teach her students to become better writers, thinkers and communicators.