Coker Professor Named a Distinguished Scientist, Receives $240,000 Grant

Hartsville, SC — Kequan Ding, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at Coker College, has been awarded a research grant of 2 million Chinese Yuan, or approximately $240,000, by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ding, who was also named a Distinguished Scientist Abroad by the academy, will spend the 2003-04 year in Beijing continuing his research on the connection between discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics and the foundation of computer science.

The results of Ding’s work could be used to improve telecommunication networks, Internet security, high performance computation, and the analysis of proteins in medical research.

“This award illustrates the high-caliber of faculty that teach at small, private colleges like Coker,” said Dr. Ron Carter, provost and dean of the faculty.

Ding joined the Department of Science and Mathematics at Coker College in 2002. He earned a B.S. in mathematics from Northeastern Normal University in Changchun, China, a M.S. in Computational Mathematics from the Dalian Institute of Technology in China, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

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