Longtime math professor earns high honor from scientific community

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In elite company

Overtoun Jenda and Haibo Zou are the latest Auburn faculty members to be named fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Our history with the organization reaches back to 1892.

With nearly 50 years in academia — almost 40 of those at Auburn — Overtoun Jenda has left a mark on the field of mathematics and thousands of students that’s impossible to calculate.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) considers him worthy of one of the scientific community’s highest honors: being named an AAAS Fellow.

AAAS — one of the world’s largest scientific societies and publisher of the “Science” family of journals — named 471 scientists, engineers and innovators to its 2024 class of fellows across 24 disciplines.

Jenda is recognized in the mathematics section, and Haibo Zou, also from the College of Sciences and Mathematics, is named in the geology and geography section. They are the only two members of the new class from the state of Alabama.

“This year’s class of fellows are the embodiment of scientific excellence and service to our communities,” said Sudip S. Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the “Science” journals. “At a time when the future of the scientific enterprise in the U.S. and around the world is uncertain, their work demonstrates the value of sustained investment in science and engineering.”

The new fellows will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin — representing science and engineering, respectively — to commemorate their election and will be celebrated at a forum in Washington, D.C., on June 7.

Beyond the numbers

Jenda, a native of Malawi, Africa, came to Auburn in 1988 from the University of Kentucky, where he earned two graduate degrees and taught mathematics.

Since arriving, he has worked his way up the professor ranks, taught undergraduate and graduate classes and conducted research in homological algebra and commutative algebra.

He has also held various administrative roles, including department chair, associate dean and associate provost, to support the advancement of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

The AAAS recognized Jenda for his research in homological algebra and commutative algebra and for extensive mentoring and service for the advancement of mathematics, both nationally and internationally.

Jenda admits his areas of study are “hard to explain” to anyone outside of graduate-level mathematics.

But here’s a try: Homological algebra is a branch of mathematics used to study the shape and structure of objects, spaces or complex systems — and the relationships between them. It draws on tools from commutative algebra to help compute things like the number of holes in an object or to distinguish between different systems.

Such research isn’t theoretical; Jenda said it provides scientists and mathematicians with practical tools needed to solve complex problems in areas such as quantum physics, data science, neuroscience, game theory, statistics and robotics.

Jenda’s work in these areas has led to the development and introduction of new algebraic structures, namely the Gorenstein injective, Gorenstein projective and Gorenstein flat modules that continue to be studied by researchers from around the world.

He proudly made these contributions alongside his former professor at Kentucky, Edgar Enochs, a trailblazer in homological algebra who retired a decade ago after 48 years.

Jenda remains dedicated to developing new techniques in both commutative and homological algebra to better understand algebraic structures that generalize classical injective, projective and flat modules.

Overtoun Jenda has served in many academic roles, but students have always remained his top priority.

Overtoun Jenda has served in many academic roles, but students have always remained his top priority.

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What’s it all for?

These days, Jenda uses weekends and summer months to continue his research. He still teaches, albeit less than in years past.

Most of his time is devoted to serving as executive director of the Office of Special Projects and Initiatives and its SPARK STEM Institute. The office and its programming exist to advance STEM education and related areas locally, nationally and internationally.

One of the office’s projects is Strengthening Pathways and Research Knowledge in STEM (SPARK STEM), which aims to provide educators from K-12 through higher education with the tools to attract, retain and graduate more students in STEM disciplines. 

Jenda said the office has gotten busier in recent years as it has implemented additional national and international academic programs.

“I strongly believe that as an administrator from the faculty ranks, I need to be engaged in research and instruction, and I plan to continue to do so,” he said.

No matter the role or objective for Jenda, students remain his top priority.

“Mentoring students across many different scholarship and retention programs for over 30 years has allowed us to create and tweak a model for mentoring that provides students with faculty and peer mentoring, academic and social support and research and conference opportunities,” he said.

For Jenda, AAAS fellow status is quite an honor, but nothing beats student success.

“It has been rewarding to serve as a faculty mentor in these programs and to see the impacts of students successfully navigating through STEM degree programs and into graduate programs and the STEM workforce,” he said. “That’s what makes it all worthwhile.”