Xiaofan Li, interim dean of the College of Science and professor of applied mathematics, announced that Robert Ellis has been named associate dean, College of Science.

Ellis is an associate professor of applied mathematics. He previously served on the Undergraduate Studies Committee and Campus Committee on Promotion and Tenure (CAMCOPT) for the university, and the Strategic Planning Committee and Dean Search Committee for the college.

Ellis received his B.S. and M.S. in mathematics from Virginia Tech and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, San Diego. After completing a National Science Foundation-supported postdoctoral fellowship at Texas A&M University, he joined Illinois Tech’s Department of Applied Mathematics in 2005. Since that time, his department service has included participating on the Chair Search Committee and several other hiring committees, organizing the department’s colloquia for three years, and more.

His research interests include combinatorial search, especially adaptive coding theory and group testing; and graph theory, especially random graphs, spectral graph theory, and probabilistic methods. He has published 20 journal and conference papers, and has received research support from the Air Force Research Laboratory and the National Security Agency, and support for professional development and undergraduate research from the National Science Foundation and the Mathematical Association of America.