Professor Alan Iliff has taught mathematics and computer science at North Park for more than three decades and enjoys teaching interdisciplinary Dialogue courses where he reads, discusses, and supervises student writing about important books and ideas.

Iliff’s interest in student learning extends to his research interests. These include mathematical logic, especially proof theory where the theory of how truth is proved in mathematics as well as undergraduate mathematics curriculum and pedagogy. In addition, Iliff teaches computer science and pedagogy, including theory of programming languages and computer approaches to proving truth in mathematics.

“Mathematics is transcultural. It is absolutely the same everywhere it is known,” he says. “The only way to relate it to multiple cultures is to apply it to issues in different societies, either geographically or historically.”

According to Iliff, mathematics is the study of eternal ideas in the mind of God, some of which are ideas we have known for millennia and some of which are yet to be discovered.