Reza Sarhangi is a professor of mathematics at Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA. He teaches graduate courses in the study of patterns and mathematical designs, and supervises student research projects in this field. He is the founder and President of the Bridges Organization, which oversees the annual international conference of Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science (www. BridgesMathArt.Org). This conference has been held in places such as Banff Center, Canada, London University, England, University of Granada, Spain, University of Basque Country, San Sebastián, Spain, the City of Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, and the Pécs Cultural Center, Pécs, Hungary.

Sarhangi has been a mathematics educator, graphic art designer, drama teacher, playwright, theater director, and scene designer in Iran before moving to the United States in 1986. He completed a PhD in Applied Mathematics, in Control Theory, under the supervision of the late Professor H.W. Wang, at Wichita State University in Kansas. During his time in Kansas, he taught mathematics and was the Chair of the Mathematics Department at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas (1994-2000).

During 1996-1997, he coordinated a program involving technological applications for mathematical studies. This program was recognized nationwide as one of 20 Innovative Programs Using Technology in Mathematics Service Courses, supported by the Annenberg/CPB Project, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Central Michigan University. In 1997, with the help of a group of students, he wrote and directed a drama entitled “Miracle in Bus Station Number 13” in Winfield, Kansas.  He received the 2000 Campus-wide Fassnacht Exemplary Teaching Award at Southwestern College in April 2000. 

At Towson University, Maryland, Reza Sarhangi administered the Graduate Program in Mathematics Education for four years. In addition to writing more than fifty articles in mathematics and design, Sarhangi is the editor/co-editor of thirteen Bridges peer-reviewed proceedings books. He is also the author of a textbook in college geometry, Elements of Geometry for Teachers, Pearson. Sarhangi is one of the founders and an associate editor of the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, published by Taylor & Francis in London, UK.

Dr. Sarhangi has a wide range of interests both in mathematics and in mathematics education. He has published articles in mathematics in prestigious journals such as IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Journal of Vibrations and Control, International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, and International Journal of Systems Science. His papers in mathematics education have appeared in the Ohio Journal of School Mathematics, Journal of The Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Notes: The Canadian Mathematical Society Journal, Journal of Wisconsin Teacher of Mathematics, and in mathematics magazines such as Math Horizons (the Mathematical Association of America), and Pi in the Sky (the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, Canada).

He has been a keynote speaker in places such as the Banff International Research Station in Mathematical Innovations and Discovery, Canada, the London Knowledge Lab, the Hellenic Physics Society of Greece, and the Flemish Royal Academy of Belgium. His current field of study is mathematics of Persian architecture and mosaic designs. His papers in this field have appeared in the Nexus Network Journal: Architecture and Mathematics Online, Journal of the Symmetrion (Symmetry, Culture and Science), Visual Mathematics Journal, and Journal of International Society for Iranian Studies.