In honor of John Ryan, Distinguished Professor in the U of A Department of Mathematical Sciences, Chapman University in Orange, California, will host a conference, "Analysis of Dirac Type and Higher Spin Operators" Nov. 11-13.

The conference will honor Ryan, who has been a major contributor to the field of Clifford analysis and to the theory of Dirac operators beginning with his D.Phil. dissertation in 1982, which he completed at the University of York, under the direction of A. Sudbery.

Ryan is also retiring from the U of A after serving the Department of Mathematics successfully for more than 30 years. In that time, he has published more than 80 peer reviewed articles, has been the advisor of six doctoral students, and has been the recipient of many grants from a variety of granting agencies.

"The conference is intended to allow his many collaborators and friends to express their respect and affection for his contributions, while at the same time to provide an opportunity for all of us to exchange our most recent results in areas that have been of great interest to John," said Daniele C. Struppa, president of Chapman University, and the conference's main organizer.

Conference speakers will join from the U.S., China, Macau, Italy, the U.K., Portugal and the Czech Republic.

More information about the conference and its schedule is available online, and participants can join both in person and virtually via Zoom.

Ryan was the second scholar to ever receive a Higher Doctorate of Science from University of York, U.K., conferred in 2008. He was also a co-investigator on the first National Science Foundation grant given to fund a conference on Clifford analysis in 2014, and received the prestigious von Humboldt Fellowship from the von Humbolt Foundation to visit Technical University of Freiberg, Germany, in 1995.

He has also served on the editorial boards of the journals Computational Methods and Function Theory; the Journal of Inequalities and Applications; Complex Analysis and Operator Theory; Advances in Applied Clifford Algebra; and Analele Universitate Oradea Fasc Matematica.

Over his career, Ryan has also frequently been called upon by prominent universities to serve on doctoral examining committees, including the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia; the University of Montreal, Canada; Monash University, Australia; the Technical University of Freiberg, Germany; the University of Macau, Macau; and the University of Maryland, College Park.

About the Department of Mathematical Sciences: The Department of Mathematical Sciences offers degrees with focuses on applied math, pure math and statistics. Courses prepare students for careers in secondary education, actuarial science and industry and graduate school. Students will receive a broad, interdisciplinary education, highlighting the utility and value of mathematics in many careers and disciplines.