Kevin Roper

Kevin Roper, PhD

Biography

Dr. Roper is originally from Jamaica but has mostly lived in the U.S. since 1985. After getting his bachelor's degree in mathematics with education in England, he taught at his former high school, Munro College, in Jamaica for several years before being recruited to be the goalkeeping coach at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. While there, he completed a master's degree in educational administration before moving on to Kentucky for his PhD in mathematics in the area of functions of several complex variables.

He arrived at Cedarville College in the fall of 1995 but left after two years to be headmaster of Munro College in Jamaica. He returned to Cedarville University in January 2001. In 2010, he married Lynn (Gagle) Roper, whom he had met at the University of Kentucky many years before.

Education and Credentials

• PhD in mathematics, University of Kentucky
• MA in mathematics, University of Kentucky
• MEd in educational administration, University of South Carolina
• BSc in mathematics with education, Southampton University (England)
• Postgraduate certificate in education, Southampton University (England)

Scholarly Works

• Convexity Properties of Holomorphic Mappings on the Unit Ball of C^n (Kevin A. Roper). Faculty Dissertations (1995)
• Convexity Properties of Holomorphic Mappings in C^n (Kevin A. Roper and T. J. Suffridge). Transactions of the American Mathematical Society (1999)
• "Convex Mappings on the Unit Ball of C^n" (Kevin A. Roper and T. J. Suffridge). Journal D'Analyse Mathematique (1995)
• "Research Methods in Mathematics: A Transitional Course" (Kevin A. Roper). MathFest 2012, the summer conference of the Math Association of America (2012)
• "Writing Mathematics Well" (Kevin A. Roper). MathFest 2012, the summer conference of the Math Association of America (2012)
• "A Sterling Look at Stirling’s Constant" (Adam Hammett and Kevin Roper). The College Mathematics Journal (2024).
• "The Roper-Suffridge Extension Operator." See Chapter 12 in Geometric Function Theory in One and Higher Dimensions by Graham and Kohr.

Interests

• Mathematics 
  
• Soccer 
• Tennis 
• Cedarville Township Volunteer Fire Department
• Cryptic Crosswords 

Expert Topics

• Undergraduate mathematics education, particularly in the areas of calculus and real and complex analysis
• Writing mathematics well
• Soccer goalkeeping

Why Cedarville?

As Dr Dixon used to say, "God!" When I started my job search after earning my PhD at Kentucky, jobs were hard to come by. All my grad student friends were struggling to get good positions. Some friends from Jamaica had a son at Cedarville College, and I asked him if he knew of any openings there. He checked it out and told me there were open positions and gave me the contact information for Dr Duane Wood. I knew nothing about Cedarville except that it was a Christian college, and I was only vaguely aware of the deep divide between Christian schools and secular schools (a very American phenomenon). Nevertheless, I applied for the job and amazingly got it. Looking back, I can see the hand of God directing me to this place.

Our students are wonderful, my colleagues are very supportive, and I look forward to coming to work every day. Teaching is my passion, whether it is mathematics, soccer, or firefighting, and I get to do it all. Even in the summer, I love to sit down with my mathematics books to learn more and think about how I can teach better. In the afternoons, I get to go out and work with the goalkeepers on the women's soccer team at the University. This has been a great chance to build into the lives of students outside the classroom. Through the fire department, I have connected with the local community. Being there for people at the lowest points in their lives has been an opportunity to serve that I never had considered until one of my math students suggested I join.