Joseph Kung received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1978 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the direction of Professor Gian-Carlo Rota. Professor Kung, an expert combinatorics, has authored in excess of fifty research articles in areas such as matroid theory and classical invariant theory. He is a co-author with Rota and Catherine Yan of Combinatorics: The Rota Way, published in the prestigious Cambridge Mathematical Library series. Professor Kung has received grants in support of his research from the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency.

One of Joseph's recent contributions to undergraduate education at UNT was the creation of his new course: Math 3870, Inventing Statistics.

Professor Kung has a long record of distinguished service to the mathematical profession in his role as the Editor of Advances in Applied Mathematics. In recognition of Professor Kung's leadership in combinatorics, the 13th annual meeting of CombinaTexas is dedicated in honor of his sixtieth brithday.