Difference Equations (E. Grove, M. Kulenovic, G. Ladas, D. Clark)
The Department of Mathematics at the University of Rhode Island is an internationally recognized center of learning in the area of Difference Equations (DE for short) with a long tradition of substantial contributions in this field.
Several graduate students, faculty members, and visitors are actively involved in research on DE's. In fact, more than half of our Ph.D. students are writing their theses in the area of DE's. We teach courses on DE's at all levels, have an active seminar, and are involved nationally and internationally in organizing Special Sessions and Conferences on DE's.
For the most part, we focus on the development of the basic theory of the global behavior of nonlinear Difference Equations of order greater than one, related to the global stability and periodicity of solutions. Professor Gerry Ladas, Editor in Chief (with Saber Elaydi) of the Journal of Equations and Application (JDEA), is also responsible for the section on ``OPEN PROBLEMS AND CONJECTURES'' which is published bimonthly in the JDEA, and which provides a wealth of research problems and new directions in DE's. Currently, professors Grove, Kulenovic, and Ladas are writing a textbook about DE's, Prof. Kulenovic and Ladas are completing a monograph on the Dynamics of Second Order Rational Difference Equations, and Profs. Grove and Ladas are involved in writing a monograph on the ``Periodicity of Solutions of Nonlinear Difference Equations.''.
For more information see: