Concordia mathematics professor publishes text book

Mathematical Modeling with Excel by Dr. Brian Albright, assistant professor of mathematics at Concordia University has been published by Jones and Bartlett, the seventh largest college publisher in the United States.

“Mathematical modeling is the application of mathematics to real-world problems,” explained Albright.  “In my book, I discuss how to describe various types of real-world problems such as population growth, scheduling problems and transportation problems with mathematics, creating what are called ‘mathematical models.’ I then show how to implement, analyze and solve these models in the spreadsheet software, Microsoft Excel.”

Albright began teaching at Concordia in 2004. He soon realized he couldn’t find a book he felt worked well for his mathematical modeling course, so he created guides for his students.  He decided to put these guides together in a book, and Jones and Bartlett was interested in publishing it. After revising the book during the 2008-09 school year, the book was published this summer.

“Now that it’s done, I’m glad that I did it. I enjoyed the overall process, and I hope that students learn something from it,” said Albright.