Rate My Professor Mark Demers

Mark Demers is Professor of Mathematics, Chair of the Department of Mathematics, and Director of the Graduate Program in Mathematics at Fairfield University. He earned a B.A. magna cum laude in Mathematics and English from Amherst College in 1994 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, in 2003. After completing his doctorate, Demers served as Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2003 to 2006. He joined Fairfield University in 2006 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011, and to full Professor in 2017. Additional appointments include a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in 2007 and a Visiting Scholar position at the Courant Institute in 2009.

Demers's research centers on dynamical systems and ergodic theory, focusing on statistical properties of hyperbolic systems, dispersing billiards, transfer operators, escape rates, and open systems. His work has garnered substantial support from the National Science Foundation, including a $242,456 Research grant (DMS 2350079) from 2024 to 2027 for nonuniformly hyperbolic and extended dynamical systems, a $214,088 grant from 2021 to 2024, and earlier awards from 2018, 2014, 2011, and 2008 totaling over $1 million. Notable publications include "Exponential decay of correlations for finite horizon Sinai billiard flows" with V. Baladi and C. Liverani (Inventiones Mathematicae, 2018), "On the measure of maximal entropy for finite horizon Sinai billiard maps" with V. Baladi (Journal of the American Mathematical Society, 2020), "Thermodynamic formalism for dispersing billiards" with V. Baladi (Journal of Modern Dynamics, 2022), "Topological entropy and pressure for finite horizon Sinai billiards" (Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, 2023), and "Lyapunov exponents and nonadapted measures for dispersing billiards" with V. Climenhaga, Y. Lima, and H.-K. Zhang (Communications in Mathematical Physics, 2024). Demers has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals such as Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems and Communications in Mathematical Physics. He serves on the editorial boards of Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems Series A since 2015 and Nonlinearity since 2018, and organized sessions at major conferences including the International Congress of Mathematical Physics in 2024. Honors include an invited plenary address at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2022, the Wall Award for research in 2016-2017, the Faculty Research Award in 2010, the 2024 College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Award for Distinguished Advising, and the 2023 Colleague of the Year award.