Endowed chair shows how philanthropy elevates Auburn academics

With years of experience in academia under his belt — and as a professor and the Rosemary Kopel Brown Endowed Eminent Scholars Chair in Auburn’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics — Hal Schenck has seen what philanthropy can do.

“Bringing in an endowed chair doesn't just benefit one person — it elevates everyone around them,” he said. “An endowed chair position attracts exceptional talent: faculty who are not only outstanding researchers, but also outstanding teachers. And undergraduate teaching is a central part of our mission.”

Schenck is a passionate advocate for philanthropic giving because he has witnessed its power firsthand. With support from the Auburn Family, one endowed faculty position can create a ripple effect that extends to students, postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty alike. For Schenck, an Army veteran, that kind of impact calls to mind a military term he knows well: “force multiplier.”

“A force multiplier is something that raises a unit or a mission to the next level,” he said. “You can't overstate the impact of donors, because when you are able to recognize someone with an endowed position, it creates this force multiplier effect, where you recruit an outstanding faculty member who raises the bar for everyone around them.”

What philanthropy can do

For Schenck, holding an endowed position in the College of Sciences and Mathematics has opened doors that continue to shape his teaching and scholarship. It has enabled him to offer additional graduate-level courses, with that classroom work ultimately growing into a book — one whose acknowledgments include John and Rosemary Brown, the 1957 graduates who established his endowed position.

The funding has also allowed him to organize and fund travel for graduate students and early-career faculty, helping them present conference papers, gain visibility and build early momentum in their professional paths.

“Part of our outreach mission is opening doors for junior faculty,” he said. “When our students and faculty present at other universities, it can change the trajectory of a career — and carry Auburn’s reputation into new places.”

That support has not only advanced Schenck’s academic work; it has also strengthened the broader sense of purpose that defines his role at Auburn.

More than a mathematician

Schenk’s work touches many lives; he recently taught Caluclus III to over 600 students — essentially the entire sophomore engineering class. But his efforts reach far beyond teaching undergraduate and graduate students. 

Schenck also publishes research at the forefront of mathematical research and stays busy tutoring and mentoring veterans. At the Veterans Resource Center, Schenck leads Math Bootcamp, helping student veterans rebuild their confidence in college-level math through a refresher in algebra and trigonometry.

“As a veteran myself, I know how daunting it can be to step back into a classroom after years away,” he said. “Helping veterans find their footing on campus isn’t just meaningful — it’s personal.”

And he’s recently returned to a pursuit he first took up as a visiting professor at Cambridge University: rowing.

“It turns out Auburn faculty can register for class, so now, I am actually an Auburn student competing with Auburn’s Rowing Club,” he said. “I can't row faster than all the students, but I still can beat some of them.”

That same curiosity and competitive spark carry into Schenck’s research, where he looks for mathematical patterns in places most people might never think to search.

When math meets nature

His endowed position has given Schenck the freedom to pursue research questions that deeply interest him. He recently published a paper he calls “a marriage of physics and math” and is currently studying the sequences of firefly blinking.

“If you look at a group of fireflies, they appear to be flashing at random,” he said. “But sometimes, they start to synchronize and flash in unison, which is fascinating.”

He and his collaborators have found that synchronization begins when a firefly detects enough nearby neighbors — a natural pattern similar to herd behavior. By studying these dynamical systems, they have translated their theory into algebraic geometry equations that offer insight into how synchronization occurs, with findings that may extend to other areas of research.

“The mathematical rules that determine when networks synchronize in fireflies offer new insight into coordinated behavior in systems ranging from power grids to neural networks,” he said.

For Schenck, that reach is exactly what donor support makes possible: the freedom to follow bold questions wherever they lead.

The difference is in the donors

Schenck knows that endowed positions help the university continue raising the bar, giving Auburn a powerful tool to attract leading educators and scholars.

“Academia has become increasingly competitive — it is, in a sense, an arms race among institutions,” he said. “Endowments help us recruit and retain outstanding faculty by offering candidates a stronger platform for their research and teaching.”

For Schenck, mathematics is central to discovery in other disciplines, and that perspective shapes the kind of faculty he hopes to appeal to: talented scholars who are eager to collaborate across campus.

“We are looking for folks who are interested in working with physics, computer science or mechanical engineering faculty to create a synergy with other disciplines,” he said. “Math is about quantitative analysis, and that's really the heart of science and engineering.”

Schenck is deeply grateful to donors John and Rosemary Brown for endowing his position and expanding the reach of his work across campus — from students and veterans to faculty and researchers.

“I think quite often about how I can carry out my part of the mission in a way that reflects their vision for taking Auburn to the next level — through our teaching, our research, our outreach and our community participation,” he said. “The Browns are fantastic people, and I am honored to be associated with them and with Auburn.”