Rate My Professor Tom LoFaro

Thomas LoFaro is the Clifford M. Swanson Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics at Gustavus Adolphus College, positions he has held since 2013 and 2021, respectively. He joined Gustavus in 2000 as an Assistant Professor, advancing to Associate Professor in 2004 and full Professor in 2009. Prior to Gustavus, he served as Assistant Professor at Washington State University from 1993 to 1999 and Visiting Assistant Professor at Harvey Mudd College from 1999 to 2000. He earned his B.A. in 1984 and M.A. in 1989 in Mathematics from the University of Missouri, and his Ph.D. in 1994 from Boston University under advisor Nancy Kopell. LoFaro has chaired the department multiple times, including 2010–2012 and 2016–2018, and held roles such as Director of the Rydell Professorship, College Harassment Grievance Officer, co-chair of the curriculum committee for the Gustavus Acts Strategic Plan, faculty representative on the Academic Affairs Committee of the Gustavus Board of Trustees, and co-chair of the 2021 Nobel Conference on big data and ethics. He teaches a wide variety of mathematics courses, particularly enjoying those with an applied focus like multivariable calculus.

LoFaro specializes in applications of dynamical systems to mathematical biology, with cross-disciplinary collaborations involving biologists, neuroscientists, and computer scientists. He is an Associate in the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Decision Making at New York University. His research includes modeling decision-making circuits, neural networks, and cooperation evolution. Key publications include the co-authored textbook Discovering Dynamical Systems Through Experiment & Inquiry (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2021) with J. Ford; Dynamic divisive normalization predicts time-varying value coding in decision-related circuits (Journal of Neuroscience, 2014) with K. Louie, R. Webb, and P.W. Glimcher; Subharmonic coordination in networks of neurons with slow conductances (Neural Computation, 1994) with N. Kopell, E. Marder, and S.L. Hooper; and Timing regulation in a network reduced from voltage-gated equations to a one-dimensional map (Journal of Mathematical Biology, 1999) with N. Kopell. He received the Gustavus Faculty Service Award in 2019, the college's highest honor for service, along with earlier recognitions such as Pew Scholars Fellowship Finalist (1999) and Invision Award (1998).