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I assume this is nearly impossible in a university with separate math and computer-science departments, due to the way funding works (correct me if I'm wrong). However, I've heard that some small universities have joint mathematics and computer-science departments. In such a case, is it possible to get a professorship with the opportunity to teach both? Would I need degrees in both to qualify for such a position?

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    Strongly country (or even institution) dependant. In Spain, yes, there are Universities where Calculus is assigned to the Computer Science department (knowledge area is the legal term). And no, technically you do not require a specific degree to teach whatever.
    – Miguel
    Commented Nov 19, 2017 at 10:39
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    @Nat IMHO real geniuses do not look down on teaching. Any undergrad can teach but when you read or listen to an oustanding researcher it makes a difference.
    – Miguel
    Commented Nov 19, 2017 at 16:41
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    I’m a computational topologist. Which one do I teach?
    – JeffE
    Commented Nov 19, 2017 at 20:29
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    Answer: Yes, that's what I've been doing for thirty-odd years.
    – Rick Decker
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 16:15
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    I do this at a fairly large community college in NYC.
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 23:03

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I don't know how common this is now, but about 15 years ago I was a visiting assistant professor in mathematics at a small liberal arts college in the U.S., a position that became available because, in trying to fill a tenure-track computer science position, no suitable candidates were found by late March or early April, and so the search was ended and a new search was started for a visiting math position, with one of the math faculty members helping out by teaching a couple of beginning computer science courses and one or two of the computer science professors teaching an extra class. In fact, I had consecutive visiting positions at TWO different colleges/universities back then for this same reason (no suitable computer science candidates were found for a tenure track position), and in each case the reason the visiting position was for math and not for computer science was due to the overwhelming greater number of experienced (in teaching) candidates that a math search would generate this late in the hiring season.

The same department tried again the next year, with the same result (I believe the other place I had a visiting position at was successful the second time), and the same math faculty member pitched in again, this time I believe teaching only computer science. Over a period of several years this faculty member transitioned to computer science, and has since written two textbooks in computer science. For what it's worth, I do not think this faculty member originally had much of a background in computer science (maybe a couple of courses as an undergraduate), but I believe this person had started being interested in computer science at least a couple of years before I was there.

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  • I'm hesitant to give specifics in my answer, since there they would be google'able and I haven't contacted any of those involved about my mentioning these things, but if anyone is really interested, this is the person in question and this is the "other place".
    – Dave L Renfro
    Commented Nov 19, 2017 at 20:50
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    (I’m including this note mainly for my own possible later reference, as I recently came across a March 1998 Usenet post related to what follows.) From roughly Dec. 1997 to May 1998, I was involved in a search for a computer science teacher for this school (academically, in the top dozen or so public high schools in the U.S.), and by late February 1998 no one remotely qualified had applied (mainly due to lack of evidence of superior teaching experience and excellence). (continued)
    – Dave L Renfro
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 18:12
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    Because of the job conditions then (very bad in math, very good in computer science), I suggested that we might have better luck if we removed the computer science degree requirement and also advertise where graduate math students looked for jobs, but still stress that the position was primarily to teach computer science. And, in fact, the person we hired (who is still there, in Fall 2020) was just such a person – someone finishing up a Masters in math who had an excellent teaching record and sufficient computer science background (had taught some CS courses at a community college, I believe).
    – Dave L Renfro
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 18:12
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    In my first comment, the link for "this is the person" is no longer valid. However, it is available at this internet archive web page.
    – Dave L Renfro
    Commented Nov 3, 2023 at 20:15
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In my university, math and computer science are not only separate departments, they're in different colleges. (Math is in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; computer science is in the College of Engineering.) Nevertheless, it is possible for a faculty member to have a joint appointment and teach classes in both departments.

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Yes, my university has a joint department of "Mathematics and Computer Science". Freshman year, my Computer Programming II professor taught a Discrete Math course because another professor in the department was on sabbatical.

So, yes, in my experience, it is possible for a professor to teach both Math and Computer Science. Note that my university's Math and Computer Science department is very small (4 prof, 1 adjunct).

Here's a link to the university's site (some of the information might be a little outdated, but here's an idea of this university's department).

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    Would you mind including a link to this department? This can help people to see what kind of departments do this (i.e., where in the world, what kind / size of institution, and so forth).
    – Pete L. Clark
    Commented Nov 20, 2017 at 18:54
  • I don't want to bump this old question but I want to record that my position, at another liberal arts college in Ohio (Denison University) was half teaching math and half teaching CS. Eventually, the "Department of Math and CS" split, and I could choose to either go full time math, or full time CS, or continue with my split. I chose the first option. Plenty of good small liberal arts colleges have a combined department of math and CS. Even if they are separate departments, sometimes people can teach in both.
    – David White
    Commented Mar 31 at 0:51
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You asked if this is possible. Absolutely! As evidence, I will point to my own department - a combined department of mathematics and computer science in a mid-sized private university in the US.

As a very specific exemplar, I'll point to my colleague Dr. Mike Slattery who teaches both programming languages as well as algebra. His research lies in the relatively rare of field of computational algebra.

In fact, our department encourages cross-over teaching and no, you do not need a degree in both mathematics and computer science.

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  • Thanks for the answer! Maybe "relatively rare," but sounds awesome to me.
    – setholopolus
    Commented Nov 21, 2017 at 6:40

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