Math professor’s excellence recognized with Gallaudet’s first endowed professorship

Dr. Mohammad Obiedat has been chosen for the first Alan M. Fisch Professorship in Mathematics, which was established this year to enhance Gallaudet’s institutional excellence in the Mathematics Program.

Interim Dean of Faculty Dr. Maribel Gárate-Estes, G-’97 & PhD ’07 presented Obiedat with the award during a STAMP meeting on October 15. His colleagues in the math program wholeheartedly congratulated Obiedat on his accomplishment, citing his professionalism and intelligence as a peer, and his commitment to students. STAMP School Director Dr. Daniel Lundberg, ’02, and Dr. Christopher Hayes, ’12 were both taught by Obiedat and praised his dedication as a teacher.

Obiedat said, “We are deeply grateful for Mr. Fisch’s generous endowment to the Mathematics Program at Gallaudet University. We share Mr. Fisch’s love for mathematics and his desire to provide outstanding mathematics education for our students at Gallaudet. We are confident that his gift will have a lasting, positive impact on the mathematics education of deaf and hard of hearing students.”

A lawyer by profession, Fisch’s gift reflects his deep appreciation for math and his desire to support outstanding math instructors and students’ access to great math instruction at Gallaudet. This is the first endowed professorship in university history.

Many congratulations to Dr. Obiedat on this well-deserved accomplishment. Read on to learn about his illustrious career at Gallaudet.

A faculty member in Mathematics for over 25 years, Obiedat is a Deaf mathematician and computer scientist with two Ph.D. degrees: one in math and another in computer science. 

He has directed the Mathematics and Data Science Program 2020, and directed the Information Technology Program from 2013–2016. He led the Mathematics program in developing and launching two innovative degree programs while teaching a wide range of Mathematics courses to diverse audiences. He has also taught several computer science and information technology courses, including object-oriented programming with Java, computer security, data structures and algorithms, and systems analysis.

Obiedat has worked diligently to expand opportunities for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students interested in mathematics, science, and technology. He was Lead Instructor for the popular Gallaudet GenCyber Camp, a program funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency, and co-authored a book chapter titled “The Future of Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Mathematics with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students.” 

One of Obiedat’s fields of interest is Cryptography, the study of encoding messages using mathematical methods, a topic vital to both business and government. In 2008, he developed a course in cryptography, the first of its kind at Gallaudet. This course, which uses curricular materials developed by Obiedat himself, has remained highly popular and continues to be offered at least biannually to mathematics and information technology students.

In addition to his substantial service to the university and his teaching responsibilities, Obiedat is active in mathematics research. In the past five years, he has published peer-reviewed papers on the homogeneity of the nil and Jacobson radical of cyclic rings and finite fields, on the nonlinearity of complex and quaternionic vector fields on spheres, and on time-efficient algorithms for lattice data structures. These fields of research are fundamental to areas such as cryptography, data security, and computer algorithms, making them crucial not only to theoretical mathematics but also to ongoing advances in computer science and modern technology.

Thanks to Reut Beckman and Mohammad Obiedat for photos and to Regina Nuzzo for biography text.