Dr. Raegan Higgins

Research Interests

Time Scales; Dynamic Equations; Ordinary Differential Equations

Biography

Dr. Raegan Higgins has been a member of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Texas Tech University since 2008. She currently serves as Professor and Interim Chair of the department, and as Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Recruitment and Hiring. She is also President of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM).

Her research is in the calculus of time scales, a framework developed to unify and extend results from differential equations and difference equations. Her work focuses on oscillation criteria for linear and nonlinear second-order dynamic equations, with additional interests in time scales applications to mathematical biology and fractional calculus. She has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on multiple NSF-funded grants, including projects through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and programs supporting STEM teacher development in West Texas.

Dr. Higgins is committed to the education, mentoring, and advancement of women and underrepresented students in STEM. She is a longtime leader in the EDGE (Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education) Program and an AWM Fellow. Her contributions to the profession have been recognized by the AWM Gweneth Humphreys Award for Mentoring (2021) and the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America's Ron Barnes Distinguished Service to Students Award (2022).

Dr. Higgins earned her B.S. in Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Xavier University of Louisiana, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she was among the first African Americans to earn a doctoral degree in mathematics from that institution.