乐播传媒 is welcoming a large group of new faculty this year. Seventeen tenured or tenure-track professors will join the college in the course of the 2025-2026 academic year. 乐播传媒 News is introducing them in groups over this semester.聽聽Last week’s installment was the first.

Sarah Conley, assistant professor of physics and astronomy

Focus of teaching and scholarship:

My research is on energy transport in the Sun-Earth system. In particular, I run high-performance computer simulations to study the exchange of energy between particles and electromagnetic fields in what’s called the solar wind: a very low-density, yet constant and dynamic flow of particles that come from the Sun and spread through the solar system.

Big-picture questions in this field include, “Why is the solar corona so much hotter than the surface of the Sun?”, “What causes particles in the solar wind to heat up?”, and “How does space weather 鈥� which is created by energetic events on the Sun like solar flares, or coronal mass ejections 鈥� impact the Earth?” I am excited to explore topics including the Sun, space weather, and space plasma physics in future classes

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at 乐播传媒?

Getting to know the campus community, and attending concerts and performances at 乐播传媒.

What is your favorite part of teaching?

Watching students become confident in their understanding of topics that are new or challenging, and playing a role in facilitating that process.

Emma Ianni, assistant professor of classical and medieval studies

Focus of teaching and scholarship:

I am a scholar of ancient Greek literature and history. My research focuses on the relationship between tragedy and historiography in classical Athens, with an emphasis on the intersection of gender, democracy, and war. My interests also include reception and public humanities. In both my teaching and research, I explore the (dis)continuities between antiquity and modernity in order to propose inclusive and original engagements with the ancient world.

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at 乐播传媒?

Seeing how becoming part of the 乐播传媒 community will allow me to take my teaching and scholarship in new, creative, and interdisciplinary directions. I admire the intellectual synergy and spirit of collaboration I’ve seen around me during the past few weeks, and I am excited to be part of such an environment.

What is your favorite part of teaching?

I love seeing students engage with new materials in their own personalized ways  鈥� when they are able to connect the class to their own interests and passions, they bring a contagious enthusiasm to the classroom. I teach ancient Greek and Latin, and I really enjoy facilitating new connections to such old languages; looking at the classical past through my students’ personal investments has helped me to think about it in original, inclusive, and exciting ways.

Cigole Thomas, assistant professor of mathematics

Focus of teaching and scholarship:

My research lies in a field of mathematics called algebraic geometry, where we use algebra to explore and understand geometric shapes. These shapes, known as varieties, are formed by points where a group of equations are all equal to zero simultaneously. I am especially interested in how numbers “move” when an action is applied to mix them. I study the patterns that emerge, called orbits. My research is motivated by the way different branches of mathematics come together, combining their tools to solve questions that would otherwise be difficult to address. 

Another aspect of my work involves exploring ways to improve how mathematics is taught and to better understand how students learn mathematical concepts. I look forward to sharing what I find beautiful in mathematics through teaching. 

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at 乐播传媒?

Getting to know my students and colleagues and the journeys they have traveled. I look forward to being a small part of their journeys, if only for a while, hopefully to help make their journey at 乐播传媒 a little brighter, a little deeper, and all the more worthwhile.

What is your favorite part of teaching?

What I cherish most in teaching are the quiet transformations, those moments when something learned in class begins to ripple beyond the limits of a single semester. Sometimes you can see it in a moment of understanding, an 鈥渁ha鈥� that lights up a student鈥檚 face 鈥� other times, in a passing remark: 鈥淢ath isn鈥檛 as hard as I thought.鈥� It鈥檚 often these gentle reshapings of a student’s relationship with math that are the most rewarding moments of teaching for me. 

乐播传媒 professors know that many first-year students can feel vulnerable, lost, and isolated. Those feelings, while normal, can deny students what they came to college for: the collective joy of learning.  

This was on Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer鈥檚 mind last year as she set out to create a new First-Year Seminar, a linchpin course taken by every new 乐播传媒 student. 

She wanted to find a way to create a joyful classroom experience to unite her students, enhance their learning, and teach them some math. Serendipity delivered part of the answer: robots.

While volunteering in the Lewiston Public Schools during her 2022鈥�23 sabbatical, Greer had a chance encounter with an educator who was preparing to use robotics to teach math lessons. That led to a win-win collaboration between Greer鈥檚 First-Year Seminar last fall and a team of Lewiston technology coaches. 

Thanks to the Lewiston tech team, Greer鈥檚 students got to use robots in their math class 鈥� which was a blast 鈥� and the Lewiston educators got to test important ideas about the benefits in teaching math with robots.

For example, they found that doing math-based activities with robots, because of the element of play, helps make students more resilient in the face of failure. 鈥淭hey are more willing to try again and again. They are more persistent,鈥� said Jennifer LaBonte, who coordinates the technology coaches in the Lewiston Public Schools.

In developing her First-Year Seminar, Greer sought to create a space where playing games, enjoying crafts, and creating art would mean working together as members of a supportive team. 

鈥淪ome of the goals were academic. Some of them were community building,鈥� said Greer. 鈥淚 wanted us to enjoy our time together and be creative and just really talk about how we learn, how they learned things in the past, and, as they transition to college, how does that help them moving forward?鈥� 

While on her sabbatical, Greer volunteered as a parent with the Lewiston Public Schools Math Standards Design Team to help align new math curriculums with state standards. She participated in an activity that taught math lessons using new robots purchased in 2022 with part of a $180,000 federal grant from COVID relief funds. Greer knew instantly the robots could have a powerful impact in her new course. That night, Greer and LaBonte formed their partnership.

In addition to using coding in robotics, Greer鈥檚 seminar did what its title 鈥� 鈥淟earning Math Using Crafts, Coding, and Games鈥� 鈥� promised. 

Specifically, Greer led her students in an investigation of 鈥渉ow humans think about math at age 5, age 12, or age 18 and beyond鈥� through various activities including card games, crochet, origami, and age-appropriate computer coding.

The card games taught probability, statistics, and the concept of modular arithmetic. Crafts, such as origami, taught geometry by forcing the students to think in the abstract. Throughout the seminar, students shared personal reflections and memories of childhood games and math lessons from grade school.

鈥淭he students definitely talked with each other during class,鈥� said Greer. 鈥淚 could put anyone in any group and they collaborated smoothly. They were all actively participating in class and were actively involved. Those were the goals. I feel it went really well.鈥�

Molly Scandrett 鈥�27 of Cheshire, Conn., who enjoys math, called it a 鈥渘ice low-stakes, low-pressure way to get introduced to college.鈥� Scandrett also appreciated getting to work with educators from the local school system, since she鈥檚 interested in studying education.

鈥淭hey wanted our feedback as much as we wanted to use their robots. It was mutually beneficial,鈥� Scandrett said.

Last fall, LaBonte came to 乐播传媒 three times with the robots and technology coaches Jeff Padgett, Michael Heidkamp, and Jason Reblin, as well as Tammy Thibodeau, an instructional specialist for technology and STEM in the local school system. 

Each time they brought age-appropriate robots. For the final visit, in early November, they brought Sphero BOLT robots to Chase Hall Lounge. Designed for educational and recreational purposes, the Sphero BOLT is a programmable robot ball that the educators use to explore various math concepts through coding and hands-on activities.

For example, they use the robots to teach students the equation for speed (which is distance divided by time) by having the students program the robots to move a specific distance for a specific time. The robotics games can get more advanced, such as when students are asked to move the robot through a maze.

Since using the robots in math curriculum is a new venture, LaBonte said seeing how the 18- and 19-year-old 乐播传媒 students responded to and enjoyed the robots helped instruct the tech coaches on the best approach to teach new math lessons in high school.   

In the end, LaBonte said, the 乐播传媒 students playing with the robots in Chase Hall Lounge demonstrated that there is a big difference between learning from traditional exercise books 鈥� and from games.

鈥淭he college kids loved it,鈥� LaBonte said. 鈥淭he robots help take away the dependency on doing math calculations. And the students want to play with them. The robot will collect the information and then spit out the number while demonstrating what the calculation means. It鈥檚 a fun way to introduce a math equation.鈥�

Associate Professor of Mathematics Katy Ott was the first teacher to introduce Nerea Barranco Aramburu 鈥�25 to the experience of learning through small group collaboration. Ott also introduced Arumbu to the idea of learning by revising assignments 鈥� many times over, if necessary.

One result is constant feedback, Aramburu says, which helps students feel more included in the classroom, which makes learning math less stressful and more meaningful 鈥� even fun. 鈥淚t was completely different. And it turns out it really works.鈥� 

Ott鈥檚 inclusive approach to her craft, her embrace of innovations in teaching, and the positive response from students adds up to an equation for teaching success 鈥� and a big reason she earned the college鈥檚 2023 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, the college鈥檚 highest award for teaching.聽

Students and alumni who nominated Ott for the award praise Ott鈥檚 teaching talents. 鈥淚 learn more than ever before while remaining calm,鈥� said one student. 鈥淪he keeps stress low but learning at a high,鈥� said another, adding a humorous note about Ott鈥檚 鈥渂affling鈥� ability to make math interesting in a low-stress environment, which 鈥渁lmost tricks you into understanding the subject.鈥�

Ott is part of a cohort of willing 乐播传媒 faculty members who are shifting their pedagogy 鈥� in dramatic fashion, in some cases 鈥� to make their classrooms and the material they teach more accessible to students of all backgrounds. 

The shift means taking on, and disrupting, longstanding attitudes about teaching, including the 鈥渄eficit mindset,鈥� says Lindsey Hamilton 鈥�05, director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning.

With a 鈥渄eficit mindset,鈥� an educator believes that a students鈥� lack of skill or knowledge needs to be fixed or filled in. It leads students very often to say, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 do this,鈥� Hamilton says. A more productive approach, which Ott uses, is to 鈥渃oach them to say, 鈥業鈥檓 still learning how to do this.鈥� It鈥檚 a minor thing. But it鈥檚 impactful.鈥� 

Hamilton says Ott 鈥渞eally takes the time to get to know her students and talk to them about all the ways they are thinking mathematically, about how they are mathematicians. And we know from all sorts of literature that if students feel they belong in the classroom, if they are happier in the classroom, they do better, they learn better, their grades show gains in their knowledge.鈥�

Small-group collaboration is standard for Ott, but it does not start with her saying to her students, 鈥淔ind a partner.鈥� A mountain of research, says Hamilton, shows that when the instructor places students into groups, it benefits introverted, neurodivergent, and those from minoritized groups by removing the stress of finding a group partner or navigating social circles. It keeps the focus on the learning.

鈥淎lmost everything I do now is revision without penalties. Learning math is not about memorizing or performing under pressure. It鈥檚 about deep thinking and being persistent, making space to understand things.”

Associate Professor of Mathematics Katy Ott

Another of Ott鈥檚 approaches that surprises Aramburu  as she arrived at 乐播传媒 from Spain is the idea of unlimited revisions of homework. 鈥淚n Spain I would submit something, get a grade, and move on,鈥� she says. Same goes for most math teaching the U.S., too.

In Ott鈥檚 classroom, 鈥淚 either get it, or I鈥檓 not there yet and I do it again, or I almost get there, and I do it again. It makes you a better mathematician, and I actually enjoy math more because I learn from my mistakes now.鈥�

鈥淎lmost everything I do now is revision without penalties,鈥� Ott says. 鈥淟earning math is not about memorizing or performing under pressure. It鈥檚 about deep thinking and being persistent, making space to understand things. I鈥檓 trying to help them put their finger on where they鈥檙e struggling. Where are the boundaries of their understanding? Don’t hide because it鈥檚 a failure. Know what to work on.鈥�

While allowing unlimited revisions might seem, to traditionalists, less rigorous, the advantages are irrefutable, Hamilton said. But it also involves an immense time commitment by the instructor. 鈥淜aty got a big laugh in her talk with faculty when she said, 鈥楬ey, I鈥檓 not going to lie. It鈥檚 also a ton of work,鈥欌�� Hamilton said. 鈥淜aty is committed.鈥�

Ott, who also credits support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence Initiative for improving her teaching, says that when students make mistakes and are allowed to revise and revise, the process can illuminate parts of a student鈥檚 unique approach to problem solving.

When students get a clearer picture of what works for them personally, she said, they make progress. Educators should help students embrace their unique skill set, not punish them for it. 

Like many of her students, Ott said she came from a traditional math background where her high school instructors lectured at the board, then expected students to prove their comprehension by scoring well on timed exams. The final grade was the average score of all the exams. That approach was more or less repeated throughout her undergraduate and graduate math courses.

But when Ott began doing research in graduate school, en route to earning a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Virginia in 2008, she saw another way. She recognized that there was a lot to learn along the road to finding a correct answer.

Using that experience, she tries to mimic the process of mathematical discovery. Her grading is now focused on encouraging students to revise and reflect on their work, rather than on test scores. Her classes celebrate communal collaboration, rather than hierarchy or 鈥渟tar鈥� students.

An infamous contributor to the deficient mindset in education is the timed exam because students who perform poorly are often seen as lacking what it takes. 鈥淚 was very lucky in that I was predisposed to liking math. So none of that turned me off. And I did well on timed exams. But I don鈥檛 think that should be an entrance to mathematics because, in the end, it鈥檚 not a skill you need,鈥� Ott said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 unfortunate for so many who really enjoy math, but are left out, turned away, or lose interest because of these high-stakes exams. I think if a class has clear learning objectives and students can  show they鈥檝e met those learning objectives, in my view, that deserves a good grade.鈥�

Today, Ott watches carefully for a defeatist mindset among her students, especially those who didn鈥檛 benefit from a strong math background, or those who see themselves lacking problem-solving skills. It鈥檚 her undying quest to put equity at the forefront of teaching.

鈥淢athematics is dominated by men and the representation of Black and Hispanic Americans is very, very low,鈥� Ott said. 鈥淚鈥檝e gotten a lot of professional development at 乐播传媒 to help create an inclusive classroom. At the beginning it all felt really overwhelming. It鈥檚 this huge systematic problem. But I started making small, local-type changes, and then adding more and more.鈥�

One class she teaches that focuses on the issue is 鈥淢athematics for Social Justice,鈥� in which students look at problems in society through the lens of math. It is a class Ott helped to co-created in 2021 with colleague Adriana Salerno, professor of mathematics. The ability to do math is a form of power, Ott said. 鈥淚n our current society, everything is about data. Knowing math and not being afraid of it puts you in a position of power.鈥�

For Christian Cabello 鈥�25 of La Canada Flintridge, Calif., taking Ott鈥檚 social justice course drove home how important and valuable math is for navigating daily life. He鈥檚 been able to use the skills gained from the course to help with an ongoing project that seeks to give a Hispanic community in Providence, R.I., better access to online information on critical public issues in their community. 

Cabello got connected to the project through the project鈥檚 founder, Carrie Diaz Eaton, an associate professor of digital and computational studies at 乐播传媒.

鈥淢y grandparents on my dad鈥檚 side are from a Latin American country, so I can relate to the older Latin-American community not knowing really how to use technology and not knowing what is accessible to them,鈥� said Cabello, a math and Hispanic studies double major. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to make them more aware of these resources, to provide really basic information that is easy to navigate.鈥� 

Cabello calls Ott鈥檚 approach to teaching a winning formula, and he鈥檚 grateful to have benefited from Ott鈥檚 insights and guidance.

鈥淪he鈥檚 aware of what her students are capable of even if the student doesn’t know that,鈥� he says. 鈥淪he really wants us to be the best version of ourselves.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 challenging to work with real people and real data on real problems in real time,鈥� Adriana Salerno told one of her classes, in person, a seeming lifetime ago, back in February.

Salerno, associate professor of mathematics and department chair, was responding to a student’s concern about the class projects underway in 鈥淧IC Math: Topics in Industrial Mathematics,鈥� a course Salerno launched this year.

The course is designed to give students real-world experience using mathematics in non-academic enterprises. Salerno’s class performed data-analysis projects for two nonprofit community partners, Lewiston Public Schools and Tri-County Mental Health Services.

During that February class session in Libbey Forum, one student wondered whether the students might actually be over-performing 鈥� making their deliverables needlessly elaborate or complicated.聽

Salerno was reassuring. She reminded the students that it’s her job to keep them on track. And besides, she said, the course was intended to teach not just data-analysis techniques but how to meet workplace realities 鈥� for instance, how to tailor products to meet a client’s need.

鈥淭his class is a bit like an internship鈥� or a first job, she said. 鈥淪omeone will say, 鈥榃ell, we don鈥檛 know how to do this thing 鈥� can you do it?鈥� And there might not be a lot of guidance. You might just spend a lot of time spinning your wheels.

鈥淥r you might work really hard 鈥� and then they鈥檙e like, 鈥極h, we didn鈥檛 really want that, we just wanted a pie chart.鈥欌��

鈥淚’m an abstract mathematician. I don’t do applied mathematics. The course has been an interesting switch for me.鈥�

Salerno’s course is the product of a professional development program offered by the . The program, 鈥淧reparation for Industrial Careers in Mathematical Sciences,鈥� aka 鈥淧IC Math,鈥� helps schools better prepare students for non-academic career options in mathematical sciences. (The title uses 鈥渋ndustrial鈥� in a broad sense, e.g. 鈥渉ealthcare industry鈥� or 鈥渞eal estate industry.鈥�)聽

Math professors, Salerno explained after that class session, tend to be people who, like her, 鈥渨ent through academia and stayed in academia. We only know how to be students or professors, and don’t have a ton of interactions with business, industry, and government鈥� 鈥� the so-called BIG sectors. 鈥淏ut the BIG careers are usually where our math majors go.鈥�

鈥淚’m an abstract mathematician,鈥� added Salerno, who researches number theory. 鈥淚 don’t do applied mathematics. The course has been an interesting switch for me.鈥�

With support from a National Science Foundation grant, she attended a PIC workshop in summer 2019 to prepare for the course. Then, working with the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and the Center for Purposeful Work at 乐播传媒, she put together the 300-level 鈥淭opics in Industrial Mathematics.鈥� (The course is cross-listed in the digital and computational studies program.)聽

鈥淚 learned how to best represent mathematical material to people who might not be as interested in the mathematics itself, but rather the end result.鈥澛�

In hiring for math-centric positions, Salerno explained, employers look for facility with problem solving, communication skills, working in teams, and programming, in addition to the mathematical know-how. 鈥淥ur math major gives them plenty of the math background and maybe even a bit of programming, but this is the first course where they actually do have to do all of these things at once.鈥�

鈥淯sing the math skills that I have learned over my time at 乐播传媒 on a real-world question was very rewarding,鈥� says Jesus Carrera 鈥�20, a math major from Waco, Texas. His team worked with the Lewiston school department, analyzing survey data to assess students鈥� sentiments about their particular schools.

“I was very surprised by how much I鈥檇 learn about real-world data science consultation. I learned how to best represent mathematical material to people who might not be as interested in the mathematics itself, but rather the end result.鈥�

Divided into four teams, the 16 students in the course tackled several projects for Lewiston Public Schools and one for Tri-County, which provides treatment for mental health and substance abuse disorders. (And actually serves seven counties: The agency chose to stick with its known branding even as it expanded its service region.)

The school system sought help interpreting masses of existing data across a range of topics, from teacher workload to standardized-test scoring to student satisfaction at Lewiston High School. Tri-County, meanwhile, had just one question for the students to address: What proportion of people in need is the agency actually reaching within its service area?

Determining its market reach 鈥渨as a particularly important activity鈥� for Tri-County, said Chief Development Officer Jamie Owens, but the agency lacked staff time to take on the project.

As a starting point, the agency provided a spreadsheet of roughly 2,500 鈥渄e-identified patients,鈥� a redacted list comprising only ages, zip codes, and presenting symptoms for each individual. From that data, the 乐播传媒 team鈥檚 solution, in essence, was to build a model of patient profiles, cross-reference that with state and national data about the prevalence of specific disorders in Maine, and then correlate those findings with the zip codes across Tri-County鈥檚 service area.

鈥淚t鈥檚 likely that more people will have access to effective mental health services due to our work, and that鈥檚 an amazing feeling.鈥�

After applying so-called Monte Carlo methods to constrain the potential for error, the 乐播传媒 students projected that there are 285 potential new clients in nine towns in the seven counties, with totals ranging from 186 in Lewiston to one in West Farmington.

(Monte Carlo methods are computational algorithms that, in effect, apply random variables to test the accuracy of a mathematical process. The inventor, who was working on nuclear weapons at Los Alamos in the late 1940s, chose 鈥淢onte Carlo鈥� as a project code name in honor of his gambling uncle.)

One of the things that surprised Owens the most about the students鈥� findings, she says, was the effect of distance on client engagement. As they build their provider networks, Owen explains, healthcare insurers assume that patients are willing to travel up to 25 miles to get to a care provider. But according to the students鈥� findings, that figure is really significantly less.

鈥淲e’re not drawing as many clients as I thought from the surrounding areas that we serve,鈥� Owens explains. 鈥淭he majority of the clients, when we look at where they reside by zip code, are really within 10 to 15 miles of our offices. In Lewiston, it’s even a little bit closer than that.

鈥淚 plan to use the findings to inform program development and how we can more effectively engage those in need of services who reside in really rural areas.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 likely that more people will have access to effective mental health services due to our work, and that鈥檚 an amazing feeling,鈥� said a member of the Tri-County team, Jason Canaday 鈥�20 of Wellesley, Mass., a double major in economics and math who’s interested in a career in statistics, data science, or mathematical modeling.

Tri-County has collaborated with 乐播传媒 students on past projects, but this was Owens鈥� first. She has nothing but praise for the 乐播传媒 team. 鈥淰ery professional,鈥� she says 鈥� 鈥渢he critical thinking, attention to detail, and explaining the data points and why they’re important. Just very bright, which I would expect from 乐播传媒 students.

鈥淚t shows me that they鈥檙e pretty well-prepared to go out and do what they choose to do鈥� after 乐播传媒.聽

The four 乐播传媒 teams tackled different projects, but encountered many of the same challenges 鈥� how to focus their research objectives, how to communicate their findings to a lay audience, whether they should serve those findings with a side of recommended action steps. (鈥淲e can give advice,鈥� Salerno said.)

鈥淚 think, in the end, the most challenging part about these projects and about teaching this class was not the mathematics at all,鈥� Salerno said.

To analyze data, 鈥測ou really need just a few tools. It’s much more about cleaning the data, finding the right visualizations for the data, and, really, figuring out what the question is that you should be asking.鈥�

Indeed, a major preoccupation for all the students was the nitty-gritty nature of real-world data. For instance, as the Tri-County team found, much of the publicly available mental-health data is about a decade old 鈥� a decade in which the prevalence of substance-abuse disorders, for instance, has increased dramatically. Data can also be incomplete, the product of a bad process, or encumbered by privacy concerns.

鈥淚 was surprised that a lot of working with data is monotonous,鈥� said Canaday. 鈥淯nfortunately, searching for data sets, cleaning data, organizing data, and the like is the majority of time spent working on a project of this type.鈥�

Still, 鈥渙nce our data were clean and run through the model, our group found it especially rewarding to see the results,鈥� he said.聽

鈥淲ithout my team, I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do nearly as much, and I think this reflects the real world, where collaboration leads to success.鈥�

In a more conventional math class, 鈥渨hen a professor gives you a problem, we’ve made sure that it’s doable, that the numbers are not too weird,鈥� Salerno said. But in the new course, 鈥淚 had no control over whether it was doable or not, so I definitely expected the students to be sort of challenged.鈥�

But, she said, 鈥淚 wasn’t expecting them to be so good at rolling with the punches. They’ve just been so adaptable, and so good at adjusting and reframing.鈥�

Indeed, 鈥渙ne major takeaway from working in an occupational context is that teamwork is key,鈥� says Ariel Lam 鈥�20 of Oradell, N.J. A double major in math and sociology, Lam was a member of one of the Lewiston Public Schools teams. 鈥淓ach person brought different talents to the group, making it possible for us to create a comprehensive final product.

鈥淲ithout my team, I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do nearly as much, and I think this reflects the real world, where collaboration leads to success.鈥�

When Sam Findlen-Golden 鈥�20 of Amherst, Mass., first started at 乐播传媒, he wanted to try anything and everything that was available to him. 鈥淛ust because it鈥檚 an option,鈥� he says.

Since then, as he’s learned more about what interests him, he’s let go of some pursuits while taking a deeper dive into others 鈥� including both mathematics and the performing arts.

A mathematics major and French minor, he’s a member of the a cappella聽group Crosstones and the music director of the Robinson Players, the student theater company.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

For Findlen-Golden, math serves as an organizing principle in his life.聽 “Math manages to work its way into a lot of places that I didn’t expect,” he says. “It can be math in the perspective of music or through the perspective of history and education, which is a lot of what I’ve done here outside of academics.”

As he completes his math major, Findlen-Golden has similarly dived deep into biomathematics, learning how best to model the spread of diseases. Along the way, he’s learned how to embrace the more subjective side of his discipline.

Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 (left) and El Khansaa Kaddioui ’20 of Elhajeb, Morocco, talk with Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer during their biomathematics seminar in Hathorn Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

“I’ve always been a very pure mathematician: I like working with straight numbers,” he explains. In the past, “whenever it gets into interpretability, like modeling complex behaviors or patterns in nature, I’ve always been a little intimidated because as much as I enjoy being creative, I also like things that have objective truth to them. There’s a bit of a simplicity in that.”

Yet once again, math has shown him a path, and he’s discovering new satisfaction as he’s explored biomathematics in his senior year, including epidemiology and disease spread.

“It’s shown me that there can be this beautiful blend of interpretability and subjectivity to something that is very objective. You have this objective language to describe subjective opinions and subjective patterns that can be modeled, interpreted in various ways.”

The world is watching the novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 600 people and infected more than 30,000 in China, and that has now spread to more than 25 other countries, including the U.S.

And of course 乐播传媒 is watching it too 鈥� and finding in this respiratory affliction some important lessons, particularly in how the disease gets around and the role played by individual choices.

During a microbiology class in January, the virus prompted Assistant Professor of Biology Lori Banks and her students to talk about how, in a sense, not all contagion is strictly microbial.

“We talked about how good information vs. unsubstantiated information about outbreaks can change people’s behavior,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd how you have to be extremely careful in the things that you’re forwarding on social media.

Assistant Professor of Biology Lori Banks advises caution when sharing information about the novel coronavirus. Don’t just forward something along “because it looked sensational.鈥� (Theophil Syslo/乐播传媒 College)

鈥淵ou need to make sure that you’re pulling from a good reputable source and not just forwarding something because it looked sensational.鈥�

The center of the outbreak in China, the city of Wuhan, offers a cautionary tale about the disease of bad information.

鈥淧rior to the major public health machine getting going鈥� and locking down travel in and out of the city, Banks says, 鈥渢hese sensational messages that were getting out caused something like 5 million people to evacuate,鈥� many of them especially anxious to travel during the Chinese Lunar New Year. This during the eruption of a virus whose incubation period can take up to two weeks.

鈥淪o imagine if you were at the back end of that, and now you’ve traveled halfway around the world,鈥� says Banks. 鈥淵ou could have been shedding virus, but asymptomatic, for almost two weeks before you would know that you were sick. So not the best idea.鈥�

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention illustration shows the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the 2019 novel coronavirus, which impart the look of a corona when viewed electron microscopically, hence the name “coronavirus.” (Alissa Eckert, MS, Dan Higgins, MAM)

The coronavirus outbreak has proven especially relevant to a senior seminar on biomathematics taught by Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer, whose published research helped to shed light on the spread of the 2009 H1N1 鈥渟wine flu鈥� virus at 乐播传媒 and elsewhere in 2009.

Greer鈥檚 students research and present topics related to biological applications of math, including modeling the spread of disease.

鈥淭his is a type of math that closely relates to other aspects of our lives and international life,鈥� Greer told her students during a class session in late January. Mathematicians and public health officials deploy a variety of models to predict the spread and impact of disease.

For instance, a model that Greer has taught in the seminar uses differential equations, which are used to quantify change, to estimate how many people might catch a disease, as well as to predict its geographical spread.

The factors that drive a disease model include the length of the incubation period, the duration of typical infections, the population of the area where the disease first breaks out, and travel patterns.

Meredith Greer and students in a Hathorn Hall classroom during a January meeting of Greer’s course “Advanced Topics in Biomathematics.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

鈥淎ir travel makes it possible for people to go pretty far pretty quickly, so the disease can go anywhere pretty fast,鈥� Greer told the class.

Xuchong Shao 鈥�20 of Shanghai put a fine point on the importance of the calendar in the spread of disease. The Lunar New Year, which took place at the end of January, is 鈥減retty much like Thanksgiving break in the U.S.,鈥� he said. 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 traveling to their home.鈥�

鈥淭hese questions of encouraging or discouraging travel have a big effect on disease spread, but it鈥檚 also really relevant to people鈥檚 customs,鈥� Greer said. 鈥淭here are not easy answers.鈥�

If modeling can predict the spread of a disease, it can also tip off officials that their reporting might be off. In the case of novel coronavirus, that could happen because its symptoms can resemble a cold (also often brought to you by a coronavirus, albeit a different species) or influenza. And such cases might not be reported.

鈥淚f distances to which it鈥檚 spread or the rate of spread are inconsistent with the total number of people who are reported as being sick, that would be a clue that maybe not enough people have been reported as being sick,鈥� Greer said.

Meredith Greer responds to a student’s remark during a session of “Advanced Topics in Biomathematics.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

At any rate, Greer told her class, it may be too early for a reliable model of novel coronavirus. Mathematicians, epidemiologists, and public health officials might have to compare and interrogate several models before a clear picture emerges.

As Lori Banks reminds us, influenza 鈥渋s really a bigger public health concern.”

As always, it鈥檚 the unknown that’s the most unsettling aspect of a disease like novel coronavirus, and previously its coronavirus cousins, SARS and MERS. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know why it鈥檚 spreading,鈥� Greer said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know how many people will get it, or how many people will die, or how far around the globe it will spread.鈥�

But all things in proportion.

As Lori Banks reminds us, influenza 鈥渋s really a bigger public health concern. The good news is the precautions that people should take to prevent both of those viruses, both flu and novel coronavirus, are about the same鈥� 鈥� wash your hands, cover your cough, don鈥檛 share food, don鈥檛 go blessing your friends and classmates with your presence when you鈥檙e feeling seedy.

But there鈥檚 one important difference, Banks notes. 鈥淚f someone is exhibiting symptoms of a respiratory infection, and they鈥檙e sick enough to see a medical professional, they should probably call ahead鈥� to allow that medical practice to prepare, just in case the culprit is novel coronavirus.

鈥淚f this is a way to start a conversation, then I am excited,鈥� says Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer.

She鈥檚 talking about the assortment of oversized plush microbes in her Hathorn Hall office that reflect one of her research interests: mathematical modeling of infectious diseases.

鈥淯sually it鈥檚 how they spread through a population of people, although sometimes it鈥檚 how they reproduce and spread within a person鈥檚 body,鈥� she says.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer poses with two of her plush microbes: a zombie virus and cyanobacteria. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The plush figures, from the company GIANT Microbes, remind her of projects she鈥檚 worked on over the last 20-plus years. Each a gift from her husband, Brian Pfohl, they depict different cells and organisms more than a million times their actual size.

Pfohl initially purchased two. As Greer鈥檚 research or class projects shifted, he added new ones to the collection.

鈥淭hese cute little pink ones,鈥� she says, 鈥渁re supposed to represent the virus that caused the outbreak of what was then called swine flu,” a disease she has studied extensively with her biology colleague Karen Palin. The algae one, she says, symbolizes the cyanobacteria she鈥檚 been working on for several years with Holly Ewing in environmental studies.

From left, closeups of GIANT Microbes: Ebola, Swine Flu, and Mad Cow. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

An Ebola microbe reminds her of her students who studied the deadly Ebola outbreak. And finally, there鈥檚 the 鈥渮ombie鈥� virus, 鈥渏ust making a joke about the zombie thing,鈥� she says.

Greer has taught a First-Year Seminar on how one might model a zombie outbreak mathematically, an excellent way to use flow charts and modeling software to introduce students to college-level mathematics, she says.

Greer hopes that students who visit her office can see a playful side of mathematics and realize that math can be helpful in surprising ways.

The plushies “can be fun for students who also ask questions about doing math research on disease. It鈥檚 another way to talk about it,鈥� she says.

They鈥檝e served a more practical purpose, too. When her two daughters were younger, they provided a welcome diversion during office visits; ditto for the children of faculty colleagues or alumni who stop by her office for a visit.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Shepley 鈥淐hip鈥� Ross has a 20-year-old coloring project stashed near the door to his second-floor Hathorn Hall office.

He says he won鈥檛 toss it. 鈥淭his was a labor of love for me. I put my heart and soul into it.鈥�

He鈥檚 talking about three posters that represent hours of work by a cohort of K鈥�12 teachers who attended the 乐播传媒 Science and Math Academy, an annual series of workshops for local educators in the mid-1990s.

To help the educators grasp the power of computers, Ross created a project involving hand-drawn fractals. A fractal is an image created from smaller versions of itself; such patterns can be seen in leaves, snowflakes, or frost on a window.

Today, it takes a computer a few seconds to create a high-resolution fractal image. In the 1990s, it could take hours.

After creating a fractal image on the computer, Ross gave each teacher a piece of paper with a grid of 400 little squares, each of which had a printed number symbolizing a certain color. He asked the teachers to color their tiny squares according to the number.

Color they did, having no idea what the project鈥檚 final output would look like “since their own tiny pieces often appeared to have been colored at random,” Ross says.

There were some complaints, Ross recalls. Some of the high school teachers thought coloring was beneath them. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of funny鈥� he says. 鈥淭oday, coloring is viewed as a soothing activity. Fractal pictures are perfect for that.鈥�

Ross enjoyed the 鈥渃ool鈥� moment as his adult students glued the individual portions of their effort together. They slowly saw how their colored squares, which 鈥渁ppeared to have neither rhythm nor pattern, suddenly fell into place as a unified whole.鈥�

Lesson learned.

Henry Boateng joined the 乐播传媒 faculty in August 2015 as an assistant professor of mathematics. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

If you wanted a computer model that would precisely simulate the chemical behavior of a substance 鈥� say, coffee 鈥� you could have it.

But a model that performed a discrete calculation for every molecular change in even a microscopic amount of coffee would take serious computing power, explains Henry Boateng, who joined 乐播传媒’ mathematics faculty in August as an assistant professor.

And simulating the chemical activity in a whole cup of joe would be out of the question. “This is on the order of 10²³ atoms,” says Boateng, pointing to a cup of coffee during a conversation in the Den. “And we can鈥檛 simulate that on a computer,” at least not without streamlining the process somehow.

But that streamlining is just what Boateng does.

A computational scientist, he designs algorithms, or sequences of computer operations, that dramatically speed up computer simulations and enable them to model large systems. With a doctorate in applied and interdisciplinary mathematics (University of Michigan, 2010), Boateng works on simulations in chemical engineering and materials science.

Meet other tenure-track faculty members new to 乐播传媒 in fall 2015:

• Carla Essenberg, biology
• Leshui He, economics
• Alison Melnick, religious studies

In his current research, he’s seeking more precise ways to model electrical charges at the atomic level. “If you describe the charge better, then our simulations will be more accurate,” he says.

His research has also encompassed models for the process of growing germanium crystals on a substrate of silicon 鈥� materials used in all manner of high technology, from LED lights to computer chips to photovoltaic cells.

“I鈥檓 not at the forefront of the product design,” Boateng says. “That鈥檚 the engineers and material scientists.” Instead, his interest lies in how math can be used to facilitate research in chemistry and physics.

His work often involves what’s called a Monte Carlo simulation 鈥� which, to drastically oversimplify, is a system for using randomly generated numbers to test the assumptions in a computer model. (The inventor of the Monte Carlo method, mathematician Slanislaw Ulam, named the process in honor of his uncle, who would borrow money from relatives to gamble at the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco.)

“乐播传媒 has students you can learn from, who will push you.”

As a rough example of Monte Carlo: What if you need to know the area of a circle, but you only know how to calculate the area of a square? Boateng draws a circle inside a square, and then adds a bunch of dots to the diagram.

If you compare the number of the dots inside the circle to the number outside it, you can then run that information through some simple calculations to estimate the area of the circle.

“You have to do it several times to get it perfect,” Boateng says. “But this is the simple idea, and it’s just random numbers.”

乐播传媒, says Boateng, “is exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for a liberal arts place where there鈥檚 a focus on students, teaching, and research, and where there鈥檚 a good balance.”

He adds, “I like that 乐播传媒 has good students, students you can engage with and have an impact on 鈥� and also students you can learn from, who will push you. This is important to me.”

He is married to Francesca Kaglar-Boateng and they have a son, Aiden. In his spare time, in addition to reading and film, “I follow all sports,” Boateng says. “I only play soccer and some tennis, but I follow most sports except for maybe NASCAR 鈥� but even NASCAR, I can talk to someone about it.

“I鈥檓 looking forward to 乐播传媒 soccer games.”

Boateng, a native of Ghana, came to the United States to attend the Mississippi University for Women (co-ed since 1982), where he earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and mathematics. He received a master’s degree in physics from the University of Michigan.

Prior to 乐播传媒, he served as a computational scientist at the STFC Daresbury Lab, Daresbury, Warrington, in the UK; and taught at the University of Akron, in Ohio.

Eileen Lam ’15 of New York City is shown at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library. A fellowship from the Creating Connections Consortium enabled Lam to spend the summer experiencing graduate-level work at Columbia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Eileen Lam ’15 always thought that graduate school would be hard, and so it is.

But she now knows that it’s manageable. And what she didn’t expect was how much she’d enjoy one of the harder challenges she encountered doing graduate-level work at Columbia University: statistical analysis.

Lam, a Chinese and politics double major from New York City, did not need a time machine to experience academe, graduate-style. Instead, she and two other 乐播传媒 students received fellowships to spend most of summer 2014 living 鈥� and working 鈥� the way grad students do.

Providing the fellowships was the Creating Connections Consortium, a group of colleges and universities striving to increase faculty diversity at private liberal arts institutions. The consortium, aka C3, seeks to encourage students, particularly from groups underrepresented in academe, to take the educational journey that can lead to a faculty career.

“I wanted to see what it would be like to be a graduate student, in all ways,” says Lam, whose Columbia experience included research, which she designed, into political participation among Asian Americans.

The C3 Undergraduate Fellowship, she says, “really helped me see that I like research and I have what it takes to be a Ph.D. candidate.”

Nicole Bermudez ’16 of Lake Forest, Calif., worked with a professor and grad students in Columbia University’s political science department. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Middlebury, Williams and Connecticut colleges launched C3 in 2012 on the strength of a $4.7 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Today, C3 comprises those three schools and 18 more, including 乐播传媒, belonging to the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers consortium (LADO); and two research universities, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

C3 initiatives enable postdoctoral researchers, as well as undergrads, to encounter the possibilities up close and personal. In a program complementing the undergraduate fellowships, C3 fellowships enable cohorts of emerging scholars from Columbia and Berkeley to teach and do research as postdocs at the three lead colleges, plus a fourth LADO school to be named in early 2015 (乐播传媒 has applied).

C3 “is thinking about communities of people who have traditionally been on the periphery of the academy, and about more deeply embedding them in the very heart of what we鈥檙e trying to do,” says Crystal Williams, 乐播传媒’ chief diversity officer and a member of the consortium’s executive committee.

“Part of the goal is to introduce our undergraduates to graduate school and to the idea of the professoriate. And part is to get graduate students really thinking about the liberal arts model as a place where they can be highly effective teachers, scholars and change agents.”

The need to draw more faculty from diverse backgrounds is pressing. According to U.S. Department of Education figures, of the roughly 750,000 full-time teaching faculty at all categories of U.S. colleges and universities in fall 2011, 79 percent were white (and of those, 44 percent were men).

The 乐播传媒 trio was the largest contingent from a single institution to receive C3 Undergraduate Fellowships last summer. Also attending Columbia was a second politics major, Nicole Bermudez ’16 of Lake Forest, Calif. She investigated shifting perspectives on party politics among indigenous populations in Ecuador.

Like Lam, Bermudez ended her summer with a new sense of possibility. “Definitely, receiving a Ph.D. requires a lot of work and it鈥檚 very difficult. But I learned that it鈥檚 doable,” says Bermudez, who is Hispanic. “We had to be very self-motivated.”

乐播传媒’ third C3 fellow was Elliott Evers ’15, a math major from Helena, Mont., who did research in numerical analysis at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

乐播传媒’ third C3 fellow was Elliott Evers ’15, a math major from Helena, Mont. Evers, who is Native American, did research in numerical analysis at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, on the Berkeley campus. Generously supported by C3, the fellows enjoyed a jam-packed eight weeks as they:

鈥⒙犅� 聽conducted and presented research relating to their 乐播传媒 majors, and assisted with research that their faculty and postdoc mentors were doing;
鈥⒙犅� 聽took courses in GRE prep and such topics as quantitative research;
鈥⒙犅� 聽and attended workshops exploring how to get into, and succeed in, grad school, including sessions with multicultural graduate students who shared their own experiences.

For all three, the robust mentoring from faculty, graduate students and even C3 officers was one of the most valuable aspects of the experience. Working with mentor Loyola Marymount math professor Herbert Medina, Evers initially worried that he might be a burden 鈥� but the experience was just the opposite, thanks to Medina’s infectious enthusiasm for the work. “He鈥檚 a great mentor,” says Evers. “He really cared.”

Lam’s faculty mentor was Robert Y. Shapiro, a prominent political scientist. “We study his books in class,” she says. She was impressed by the attention he gave to the mentees’ work. “He would read these 25-page papers multiple times to make sure that we were going in the right direction and to point us toward areas we should look at.”

At Columbia, the C3 fellows in politics worked closely with Amber Spry, a doctoral candidate in American politics and designated mentor. With Shapiro, Spry taught the “Principles of Quantitative Research” course 鈥� an accelerated version of a course taken by first-year doctoral students 鈥� and was a valuable counselor.

“She was a great resource for all questions I had, whether they were related to the project or just more broadly about the lifestyle of an academic,” says Lam. “Amber is a true inspiration.”

“Relationships are an important element in scholarly growth,” says Spry. “My best teachers did more than provide classroom instruction 鈥� they helped me find the tools I needed to reach my goals, and taught me how to learn well along the way. I like to believe that I’m modeling something similar for my students.”

The fellows’ summer takeaways included practical insights 鈥� for instance, in picking a graduate program, the importance of finding not just the right institution but the right professor.

But Lam, Bermudez and Evers experienced deeper inspirations as well. Evers savored the opportunity to do theoretical research. “If you’re at a place for two months working on a single problem, and you find something interesting and you want to explore it further, that鈥檚 what makes it fun,” he says. “That鈥檚 what academe is all about.

The Creating Connections Consortium is “a holistically beneficial project,” says Crystal Williams, associate vice president and chief diversity officer at 乐播传媒. (Leah Nash)

“There鈥檚 no algorithm to answer these problems. You’ve got to be creative.”

Beyond the C3-specific mentoring relationships with faculty and grad students, there were ample opportunities for the all-important networking, thanks in large part to the symposia that ended the experiences.

“We made a lot of connections with people who did different things with their Ph.D.’s,” says Lam. “That was cool.”

If The Leadership Alliance and other programs share C3’s goals, Williams points out that the consortium’s structure and approach are distinctive. In particular, the linkage between two disparate educational segments 鈥� Research 1 universities and liberal arts schools 鈥� is unusual and, as Williams says, exciting.

The R1s hope that their Ph.D.’s will find teaching positions at rigorous and rewarding institutions. And with a tidal demographic shift looming as baby boomer professors approach retirement, liberal arts schools like 乐播传媒 are determined that their successors be as diverse as the society their students will graduate into.

Both intellectually and ethically, with its founding emphasis on inclusion, 乐播传媒 is a good fit for C3, says Williams, who first became involved with the LADO as dean for institutional diversity at Reed College, and now represents the consortium on the C3 executive board. (She brought a 乐播传媒 contingent, including President Clayton Spencer and eight students, to a C3 summit at Connecticut College last spring.)

Still fresh in the collective 乐播传媒 consciousness is the term “beautiful cycle,” which Commencement speaker Tommy Holmberg ’13 used to describe how generations of 乐播传媒 students perpetuate the best of 乐播传媒.

But the term suits the Creating Connections Consortium just as nicely, as it equips undergrads for grad school, postdocs to teach undergrads and, hopefully, campuses large and small to be better support diversity. “It鈥檚 a holistically beneficial project,” says Williams.

乐播传媒’ C3 fellows are still pondering their post-graduation options, but all three came away convinced that graduate school would work for them. Convinced, too, of the fellowship’s potential for widening access to grad school and the professoriate.

“This program really does show that it鈥檚 not as difficult as you would imagine,” says Lam. “I think a lot of people are frightened. They say, ‘Five to seven more years of schooling? What could you possibly be doing?’

“But there鈥檚 so much to explore.”