Arezoo Islami
Biography
Arezoo Islami (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2016) joined SF State after teaching for two years at Stanford University during her postdoctoral studies, and was lecturer faculty at CCNY in 2013 while she completed her Ph.D. work.
Islami (pronounced EHS-laa-mi) works on the relationship(s) between mathematics and other sciences. Her research uses historical case studies to address the possibility and the ramifications of the match between mathematics and other sciences (especially modern physics). She wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the applicability of mathematics to quantum mechanics, critiquing Eugene Wigner’s “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”.
Islami has been a recipient of the Marcus Early Career Research Award, Marcus Undergraduate Research Grant, and LCA Extraordinary Ideas Grant(s). Additionally, she is the recipient of the 2024 Faculty Research Fellowship by the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies for her project, “Infinite Freedom: Science and Mathematics in the Iranian Diaspora”. Her work has been published in Synthese, Metascience, Journal of Applied Logics, and Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.
Courses Taught
PHIL 111 - The Art(s) of Quantitative Reasoning
PHIL 350 - Philosophy of Science
PHIL 696 - Directed Reading: Learning Outcomes
PHIL 715 - Seminar in Philosophical Writing
PHIL 846 - Seminar on the Philosophy of Mathematics
PHIL 850 - Seminar in the Philosophy of Science