Hi, I’m Robert Talbert and thanks for being on my website. I am on a mission to make higher education a better version of itself, starting with individual faculty and without all the BS and all the buzzwords. This website is the home base for that mission.

I am a Professor of Mathematics, based at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan USA. In that role, teach three courses a semester (specializing in math courses that Computer Science majors take), engage in scholarship (mostly in the form of writing books and articles about teaching innovations), and work on committees and do service to my profession. In other words, I am a normal front-line faculty member, facing all the challenges and joys that faculty face, and not a talking head on the lecture circuit, and I am very proud of this.

Here is a brief review of how I got here:

• I grew up in rural middle Tennessee as the youngest of three kids, and my dad was an electrical engineer who formerly worked at NASA on the Gemini Project.

• I attended Tennessee Technological University first as a Psychology major, then in my second year changed majors to Mathematics after a late-night dare from my roommate. Long story. Graduated in 1992 with an honors B.S. in math (and minors in Psychology and English!).

• I was then accepted into Vanderbilt University, surely the result of a clerical error, where I eventually earned my M.S. and then somehow a Ph.D. in Mathematics. I studied algebraic topology and category theory, doing my doctoral dissertation under the direction of Efstratios Prassidis.

• After finishing my Ph.D. in 1997, I took a position as Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Bethel College (now Bethel University) in Mishawaka, Indiana.

• In 2001, I moved to Franklin College in Indiana where I was Assistant Professor and, after earning tenure, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computing. It was here that I started my first blog, Casting Out Nines; and began experimenting with flipped instruction.

• In 2011, I moved again, to Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan where I am today. I earned tenure (a second time) in 2017 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2018.

• I currently live in Allendale with my family, just 20 minutes away from Grand Rapids and 20 minutes from Lake Michigan beaches.

• I have been a bass guitarist for over 30 years (off and on) and currently play in the Grand Rapids area with the bands Taproom Fix, E11EVEN, and Superfunk!. Click here to learn more about my music.