Faculty Profile

Degrees

PHD, Wesleyan Univ; BA, SUNY Coll New Paltz

Bio

Sylvia Silberger is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Mathematics Department. She has been at Hofstra University since fall of 1998. Her PhD work was in the field of Symbolic Dynamics, which has been her primary field of interest, but she has done some work in combinatorics and universal algebra and lately she has been learning some Lattice Theory and is working with her colleague Kira Adiracheva. Sylvia lives in the Village of Hempstead, walking distance to school, with her husband Bill, her 5-year-old son Kiam, her dog Savannah, her cat Koji, and their good long-term friend, Barry. She helped to found and is presently serving as the Secretary of the Board of the Hempstead Community Land Trust, an organization dedicated to facilitating affordable home-ownership for low-to-moderate income individuals in the Village of Hempstead. Sylvia considers herself an environmentalist and walks or bikes for transportation whenever feasible. She founded a nonprofit, Long Island Transportation Alliance, that advocated for more convenient and safer facilities for environmentally friendly transportation alternatives. She chaired LITA for several years, during which time she organized four Bike-to-Work parades, among other things. The organization is presently in hiatus as one of the other leading contributors moved out of state while Sylvia dedicated herself more fully to the HCLT and her young son. Along with her community work, Sylvia's favorite past times include painting, biking, hiking and yoga.

Teaching Interests

All levels of mathematics

Research Interests

symbolic dynamics, combinatorics, lattice theory

Recent Courses Taught