math-news
McMinn Chair
Christopher Hacon
Christopher Hacon appointed to McMinn Chair in Mathematics
On July 1, 2022, University of Utah President Taylor Randall appointed Distinguished Professor Christopher Hacon as the Trevor James McMinn Professor in the Department of Mathematics. Hacon held the inaugural McMinn Chair for five years—that term ended last June.
According to the terms of the appointment, this is a five-year appointment. Only one faculty member in the department may hold the appointment of the McMinn Chair at a time—in exceptional cases, the current Professorship holder may be considered for reappointment after a review has been conducted pursuant to the university’s policies and procedures for professorship holders.
Davar Khoshnevisan Chair of the Dept of Mathematics
“Distinguished Professor Hacon's work has been groundbreaking, and he is recognized internationally as a mathematical scientist of the highest caliber, whose work has motivated and impacted the next generation of brilliant algebraic geometers.”
College Rankings
U.S. News & World Report has released their 2022-2022 National University Rankings. The University of Utah is now ranked No. 1 in Utah and No. 42 nationally among public universities.
The College of Science fared even better. National rankings for public universities put Biology at No. 13, Chemistry at No. 20, Mathematics at No. 22, and Physics & Astronomy at No. 47.
There are many factors used to determine a school’s final ranking in the U.S. News & World Report but one factor that is not considered is cost. When cost is factored, there are few universities that challenge the University of Utah.
Sage Blackburn
Academic advisor, Sage Blackburn, recently joined the Department of Mathematics.
What was your previous job before you came to the Math Dept.?
I joined the U in 2018 during my freshman year as a peer advisor for the Academic Advising Center (AAC). It was there that I began to enjoy being part of the process that supported the learning efforts and experiences of undergraduate students. As I got closer to graduation, I began to consider a career in academic advising. With research and helpful advice from advisors from the AAC, I applied for a handful of positions and decided that the Math Department was a great fit for me!
Sage Blackburn
What are your duties in your current position?
I advise all math majors in their academic planning. I oversee the student groups USAC (Undergraduate Student Advisory Committee) and Pi Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society. I also serve on the Undergraduate Awards and Scholarships Committees and the Awards Program Committee.
What do you enjoy about working with students?
I believe in the advisor’s purpose and enjoy helping students develop meaningful educational goals that are consistent with their personal interests, values, and abilities. I believe that as an advisor I am an extension of a student’s learning , so I strive to educate them outside of the classroom as they navigate college. I feel that advising is meant to give students an equal opportunity to success, allowing them to view their education holistically and incorporate it into their life.
Hours and/or days when you can meet with students? Where are you located?
I meet with students Monday through Friday virtually and in person. My hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and I’m located in the Advising Hive in the Crocker Science Center, room 240. Math advisors also have their updated drop-in hours on the Math Department website.
To get the most from an advising session, how should students prepare for a meeting with you?
I suggest compiling a list of your questions so that you won’t forget to ask something! We will discuss your degree audit in your appointment so it’s a good idea to generate and review your degree audit beforehand.
What was your undergraduate degree? Where did you receive it?
I received my undergraduate degree in political science with an emphasis in public policy here at the U in 2022. I am currently considering applying to graduate school, so wish me luck!
How did your parents decide upon your unusual first name?
My parents lived and worked in Lake Powell before I was born. Sagebrush is one of the most common and abundant plants that grows in the area, and my mom loved the smell of sagebrush, especially after it rains. She also liked the double-meaning of profound wisdom (thanks Mom!).
Anything else you want to add that we've haven't asked?
I love hiking, especially in Southern Utah. I know of some beautiful areas of the desert. If you ever need suggestions for hiking, just ask! Since I’m a recent graduate from the U, I know how difficult college can be to navigate. I would love to meet with you and assist in your college journey!
Arctic Adventures
Julie and Rebecca on the ice.
Adventures in the Canadian Arctic.
Rebecca Hardenbrook and Julie Sherman, both graduate students in the Math Department, participated in the Biogeochemical Exchange Process at Sea Ice Interfaces (BEPSII) Sea Ice School May 14-23, 2022, at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, Canada.
The purpose of the BEPSII program is to provide early-career polar researchers an opportunity to learn field work methods for understanding and analyzing polar sea ice firsthand, as well as building a community in the sea ice research world. Competition for acceptance in the program is competitive—nearly 100 applications were received for 30 spots.
Recently, the Math Department asked Hardenbrook about her adventures in the Canadian High Arctic.
How did you become interested in sea ice research?
I started my college-level educational journey at the U as an undergrad in 2014. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to do something related to studying climate change in some way, but I also found my passion in studying math. I began working with Dr. Ken Golden in my junior year. He works right in that intersection of climate change, specifically sea ice and math. I was lucky enough to be accepted to the U for my Ph.D., which I am grateful for because being able to continue in this research direction has opened my eyes to a lot of really important research questions about things—such as the fact that all living things depend on sea ice to survive, including humans.
Approaching Cambridge Bay.
How did you travel to Cambridge Bay?
We left Salt Lake, flew to Seattle, and then to Edmonton in Canada. After spending the night in Edmonton, we flew to Yellowknife and then to Cambridge Bay. Yellowknife is a beautiful town in the Northern Territories. On all of our flights, I couldn't stop looking outside the window on the plane as the landscape changed slowly from the familiarity of the Wasatch mountains to the flattened landscape surrounding Edmonton to the frozen lakes and dense woods surrounding Yellowknife to the endless snowy and icy terrain of the Canadian High Arctic, which includes the area in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut.
What was it like meeting the other fellow scientists and colleagues?
Meeting other blooming scientists was equally as exciting as actually getting to be on the sea ice for the first time. I now have 30 friends all around the world who are working on exciting and relevant problems relating to polar sea ice, who I can potentially work with in the future. I certainly have never had that sort of network before! The relationships I made with other early-career researchers at the BEPSII Sea Ice School left me with a renewed passion for my own work and for asking questions I haven't thought of before.
Drilling ice cores.
What was a typical day like?
The activities really varied day-by-day, but we did have several lectures from experienced polar researchers that ranged among topics. For example, we heard from experts studying biophysical processes of the ecosystems and organisms living within the Arctic Sea ice. The researchers are investigating the movement and transport of critical nutrients and trace metals in the Chukchi Sea, the optical properties of sea ice, and how snow on the surface comes into play. We did have a few days of field work, the first two primarily were practice days for learning how to drill ice cores, dig snow pits, take snow hardness measurements, make sack holes, and more. We had a lot of free time to explore the area surrounding Cambridge Bay, although we didn't venture too far away from the town itself. You only have to go out 3/4 of a mile or so before you really understand how remote the area is.
What were your living quarters like? What about your meals?
We lived in apartments of eight people each, and within the apartments we shared a room with one person. Our apartments were part of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) campus, and they were very nice. Because the sun was out for most of the day (or for several hours the entire day), our apartments were pretty warm despite the outside temperature being below freezing. Our lunch and dinner were catered by a local business, and our breakfast foods were purchased from the local grocery store. The price of foods that I really take for granted, like fresh produce and even things like peanut butter, in Cambridge Bay are incredibly expensive. As Julie mentioned in her profile, we heard that a single watermelon costs $75, which is an extreme example, but it was still shocking to me.
Walking on sea ice.
What did you enjoy most about the experience? What was the environment like?
I truly enjoyed the entire experience, but I think selfishly finally getting to be able to walk on the sea ice, see the algae at the bottom of the ice core we took, feel the cold summer Arctic air on my face, and experience that environment was life changing for me. I did get a little emotional when I first stepped out onto the ice, because I've wanted to be able to do that now for the last six years. I am also so grateful to be able to make the friends that I did. The people I met there are so passionate about their work, and that drives me to continue doing research in this field. The environment was like nothing I've experienced, and it's kind of hard to put into words. We got to be there for several days with no sunset. Even though it was hard to sleep sometimes, I didn't mind because it was so beautiful on the lucky days when the clouds would clear out and the snow would stop falling. The air was incredibly dry despite us being right near the ocean—I mean it's technically a desert up there—so I think the cold felt a little less intense unless it was windy (which it often was). I think the most notable thing for me was just how quiet and flat it is. I could see many miles on a clear day.
There is an Inuit legend about a family of giants who died while crossing Victoria Island looking for food. These giants are the three eskers (a ridge of stratified sand and gravel, deposited by meltwater from a retreating glacier or ice sheet) nine miles outside of Cambridge Bay. They are named Uvayuq (after the father), Amaaqtuq (after the mother, who was pregnant), and Inuuhuktu (after the son). It is so flat that you can see Uvayuq clearly from the town. In fact, some of us actually considered running to it, but we got too nervous about potentially meeting a bear on our way, so we didn’t do it. Luckily, we didn't see any bears (polar or grizzly), but we heard that there was a polar bear 30 miles out from the town somewhere. We did see a few Arctic fox, which was really exciting because early on in our time there, their fur was completely white and they are hard to see. As time went on, we saw Arctic fox that were starting to shed their winter coats. Their summer fur is short and black, so they’re much more visible. We also saw a few Arctic hare, but they are very good at hiding so we didn’t see too many. There were also a lot of birds—unfortunately, I’m not much of a birder at the moment so I couldn't identify them.
What are your plans after you receive your Ph.D.?
I am hoping to get a postdoctoral research and teaching position at a college or university. I love my research, and I also love teaching undergraduate students about math, about sea ice, and about the environments around us. A life where I can continue on with both of my passions would be a good one, and so I hope to do that.
Aftermath 2022
Moiré Magic
Highly tunable composite materials—with a twist.
The above animation shows the patterns created as two circles move across each other. Those patterns, created by two sets of lines offset from each other, are called moiré (pronounced mwar-AY) effects. As optical illusions, moiré patterns create neat simulations of movement. But at the atomic scale, when one sheet of atoms arranged in a lattice is slightly offset from another sheet, these moiré patterns can create some exciting and important physics with interesting and unusual electronic properties.
Mathematicians at the University of Utah have found that they can design a range of composite materials from moiré patterns created by rotating and stretching one lattice relative to another. Their electrical and other physical properties can change—sometimes quite abruptly, depending on whether the resulting moiré patterns are regularly repeating or non-repeating. Their findings are published in Communications Physics.
The mathematics and physics of these twisted lattices applies to a wide variety of material properties, says Kenneth Golden, distinguished professor of mathematics. “The underlying theory also holds for materials on a large range of length scales, from nanometers to kilometers, demonstrating just how broad the scope is for potential technological applications of our findings.”
Ken Golden
"We observe a geometry-driven localization transition that has nothing to do with wave scattering or interference effects, which is a surprising and unexpected discovery."
With a twist
Before we arrive at these new findings, we’ll need to chart the history of two important concepts: aperiodic geometry and twistronics.
Aperiodic geometry means patterns that don’t repeat. An example is the Penrose tiling pattern of rhombuses. If you draw a box around a part of the pattern and start sliding it in any direction, without rotating it, you’ll never find a part of the pattern that matches it.
Aperiodic patterns designed over 1000 years ago appeared in Girih tilings used in Islamic architecture. More recently, in the early 1980s, materials scientist Dan Shechtman discovered a crystal with an aperiodic atomic structure. This revolutionized crystallography, since the classic definition of a crystal includes only regularly repeating atomic patterns, and earned Shechtman the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Okay, now onto twistronics, a field that also has a Nobel in its lineage. In 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering graphene, a material that’s made of a single layer of carbon atoms in a lattice that looks like chicken wire. Graphene itself has its own suite of interesting properties, but in recent years physicists have found that when you stack two layers of graphene and turn one slightly, the resulting material becomes a superconductor that also happens to be extraordinarily strong. This field of study of the electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene is called “twistronics.”
Two-phase composites
In the new study, Golden and his colleagues imagined something different. It’s like twistronics, but instead of two layers of atoms, the moiré patterns formed from interfering lattices determine how two different material components, such as a good conductor and a bad one, are arranged geometrically into a composite material. They call the new material a “twisted bilayer composite,” since one of the lattices is twisted and/or stretched relative to the other. Exploring the mathematics of such a material, they found that moiré patterns produced some surprising properties.
“As the twist angle and scale parameters vary, these patterns yield myriad microgeometries, with very small changes in the parameters causing very large changes in the material properties,” says Ben Murphy, co-author of the paper and adjunct assistant professor of mathematics.
Twisting one lattice just two degrees, for example, can cause the moiré patterns to go from regularly repeating to non-repeating—and even appear to be randomly disordered, although all the patterns are non-random. If the pattern is ordered and periodic, the material can conduct electrical current very well or not at all, displaying on/off behavior similar to semiconductors used in computer chips. But for the aperiodic, disordered-looking patterns, the material can be a current-squashing insulator, “similar to the rubber on the handle of a tool that helps to eliminate electrical shock,” says David Morison, lead author of the study who recently finished his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Utah under Golden’s supervision.
This kind of abrupt transition from electrical conductor to insulator reminded the researchers of yet another Nobel-winning discovery: the Anderson localization transition for quantum conductors. That discovery, which won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics, explains how an electron can move freely through a material (a conductor) or get trapped or localized (an insulator), using the mathematics of wave scattering and interference. But Golden says that the quantum wave equations Anderson used don’t work on the scale of these twisted bilayer composites, so there must be something else going on to create this conductor/insulator effect. “We observe a geometry-driven localization transition that has nothing to do with wave scattering or interference effects, which is a surprising and unexpected discovery,” Golden says.
The electromagnetic properties of these new materials vary so much with just tiny changes in the twist angle that engineers may someday use that variation to precisely tune a material’s properties and select, for example, the visible frequencies of light (a.k.a. colors) that the material will allow to pass through and the frequencies it will block.
“Moreover, our mathematical framework applies to tuning other properties of these materials, such as magnetic, diffusive and thermal, as well as optical and electrical,” says professor of mathematics and study co-author Elena Cherkaev, “and points toward the possibility of similar behavior in acoustic and other mechanical analogues.”
Find the full study in Communications Physics.
Lindsey Henderson
Lindsey Henderson, Secondary Mathematics Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education.
Leading a revolution in how math is taught in Utah.
Lindsey Henderson (BS’2002 Mathematics Teaching, with a minor in geology) is poised to lead a revolution in how math is taught in Utah. As the Secondary Mathematics Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education, she and her team determine how Utah school kids are taught mathematics and which math courses are useful for their career paths following high school graduation.
In October 2021, Henderson and her team posted a survey asking Utah’s tech founders, executives, and chief technical officers to discuss the kinds of math typically used in tech careers. The results were interesting and surprising. According to the tech community, calculus is moderately useful because it teaches problem-solving skills, but it isn’t particularly useful in daily work. Other respondents thought calculus should be replaced immediately with more useful math-related subjects, such as AI and data science. Another study by Dr. David Bressoud, DeWitt Wallace Professor Emeritus at Macalester College says that studying calculus in high school is only marginally beneficial for the small number of students (18%) who study it.
“These responses reveal how much math skills in the workplace have changed and suggest how important it is for students to learn new and different skills for their future careers,” said Henderson. “Skills such as how to analyze and interpret data and spreadsheets and how to create other types of visual data.” Half of the respondents reported using algebra often, but the majority noted that they seldom, or never, use geometry, trigonometry, and especially calculus. The results of the survey mirror the results of a similar and larger survey created by professors at Stanford University and the University of Chicago in 2019, which can read about here. For now, the Utah State Board of Education is still collecting data and hasn’t yet decided on how best to update secondary mathematics courses and teaching for Utah students.
In 2021, Henderson received a Women Tech Award from the Women Tech Council for her educational leadership.
Lindsay Henderson
"My education at the University of Utah has made every difference in my life. I had a wonderful experience at the U, both socially and academically, and I feel it prepared me for success!"
At the U
Henderson grew up in Spanish Fork, Utah, and was raised by a mom who taught deaf students and a dad who taught kids who had been hospitalized due to mental illness. Her mom and grandfather have strong roots at the U since they both graduated from the university. Growing up in Utah County, Henderson’s family was considered an outlier because they always cheered for the University of Utah teams at sporting events.
“I saw the U as an opportunity to further my education and as a safe place to start learning how to become an adult,” said Henderson. She loved living on campus (in the Van Cott dorms and then eventually in Benchmark after the 2002 Winter Olympics). She worked at the front desk at Van Cott as well as at the Heritage Center before, during, and after the Olympics.
She was very good at math and enjoyed calculus and linear algebra. She decided that she wanted to earn a math degree because she loved learning, doing math, and she hadn’t heard of many women who had math degrees.
“My education at the University of Utah has made every difference in my life,” she said. “I feel so fortunate to have had access to such a high-quality institution of higher education. I had a wonderful experience at the U, both socially and academically, and I feel it prepared me for success!”
Favorite Professors
After she received an associate’s degree from Utah Valley University (UVU), she transferred to the U. Her favorite math professors were Dr. János Kollár (linear algebra), Dr Alexander Balk (differential equations), and Dr. James Carlson (history of math). Although she had already taken linear algebra at UVU, she took the class again at the U just for the opportunity to study with Dr. Kollár. She was impressed with his teaching style, and today she still loves linear algebra.
She remembers Dr. Balk’s efforts to engage students in differential equations by using rainbow-colored chalk to make things exciting. She appreciated his interest in students, and she felt seen and valued by him, which contributed to her doing well in his class.
She still thinks most about a history of mathematics class taught by Dr. Carlson. She loved learning about how mathematical topics were discovered and about different cultures and the way they reasoned and made sense of the world mathematically. While she was taking his class, she suffered a life-threatening snowboarding injury and had to be hospitalized. Dr Carlson worked with her one-on-one to help her make up an incomplete grade. “He did it out of the goodness of his heart and because he truly cared,” she said. “To this day, I appreciate his willingness to work with me, and I will never forget how he adapted his teaching to support me during a difficult time.”
Dr. Mary Burbank in the College of Education was a non-mathematics professor who greatly influenced Henderson. She was Henderson’s student-teaching professor, and Henderson flourished in her classroom. “She was the kind of professor who really took the time to get to know you, and then she pushed you to grow in ways that you needed to grow,” she said. “I loved working with her and appreciated the trust and relationship building she invested in because it really helped me hone my teaching skills.”
Advice for Students
“Learn to be your biggest advocate—nobody else will do it for you. Make space for yourself and your ideas because you have wonderful thoughts to share and so much to learn from others,” she said. “Not everyone will recognize your potential, and that’s okay as long as you do. Your persistence and thirst for knowledge will benefit you in so many ways in the future!”
Teaching Math
Once Henderson graduated from the U, she accepted a position teaching integrated 8th grade science and pre-algebra at Bryant Middle School in the Salt Lake City School District. After two years teaching both mathematics and science, she was told that she wasn’t considered “highly qualified” to teach integrated science and that she would have to complete more coursework to continue. At that point, Henderson decided to become a full-time mathematics teacher. She worked hard to keep her middle school students interested in math, and she tried to harness their excitement for learning. She would integrate mathematical discovery and enrichment tasks into the standard curriculum, such as having students use Mobius Strips, build tetrahedral kites, and work on other mathematical projects.
After five years at Bryant, she began teaching mathematics at Highland High School. From there, she transferred to East High School, where she spent the next nine years. Throughout her 13-year teaching career, she taught all secondary grade levels and all math subjects offered in Utah, from pre-algebra to AP Calculus, except AP Statistics and continuing education courses. She enjoyed it when the state switched to the new integrated math standards in 2010. She loved teaching and integrating connections between algebra, geometry, and algebra II, instead of teaching each subject by itself. She started using task-based and inquiry-based mathematical learning experiences.
“I loved making my classroom a place where traditionally underrepresented groups of students felt safe, and I particularly enjoyed making math accessible to all students,” she said. “One of the ways I did this was by helping students see themselves differently—changing their thinking so that they began to see themselves as mathematical thinkers and doers.”
Towards the end of her teaching career, she decided to form her own business—Sugar House Instructional Design—so that she could consult on curriculum development projects. She taught and consulted with private STEM Education Technology (EdTech) startups. Her consulting practice went well, and she was quickly promoted from consultant to chief academic officer for a local startup called Zaniac. She spent two years there before moving to Because Learning! (formerly Ardusat) as the director of learning.
From Because Learning! she made the transition back to public education, but now she had her math and teaching skills, along with her newly honed people and project management skills. She landed a district-level leadership position in the Davis County School District, the largest public district in Utah, and served as their K-12 mathematics specialist for the next two years. She found that she had a talent for bringing together diverse stakeholders and achieving a consensus, along with building productive, positive communities of educators.
When a secondary mathematics specialist position opened at the Utah State Board of Education, Henderson saw an opportunity to work with a community of mathematicians at the state level. In the two years since she joined the board, she has built a community of more than 4,000 math or math-adjacent educators/leaders, significant growth from the 250 educators she inherited when she first began working for the state. Since Utah switched to an integrated secondary mathematics core in 2010, there have been remarkable student results. “I have been proud to unite the Utah Secondary Mathematics community around a shared common vision for mathematics education in Utah, as well as set the tone of the culture for what mathematics looks like for secondary math students in Utah,” she said. She also has been fortunate to work with higher education partners on several projects, most recently in updating the Secondary Mathematics endorsement requirements. Math endorsements are required in order to teach in a public school in Utah.
She has been doing a lot of collaboration with the local mathematics community and also with the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences. She is preparing for the 2023-2024 school year when mathematics core standards are up for revision, with the goal of updating standards and determining the best path forward to ensuring that Utah high school graduates have the requisite math skills.
Henderson lives with her wife and kids in Salt Lake City. She loves to read, enjoys summer, and is drawn to water in nature—lakes, oceans, rivers. “I seem to stumble across parabolas a lot when I am out and about,” she said. “I’m also the crazy cat lady in the neighborhood—I have four Scottish kilt kittens that I adore. My wife and I really love living in Utah and all that it has to offer.”
Phi Beta Kappa
Muskan Walia Named Phi Beta Kappa Society Scholar.
Muskan Walia, a second-year student at the University of Utah Honors College, studying math
and philosophy, has been named a Key into Public Service Scholar by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The Society is the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society, and the Key into Public Service award highlights specific pathways for arts and sciences graduates to launch public sector careers.
Chosen from nearly 900 applicants attending Phi Beta Kappa chapter institutions across the nation, the Key into Public Service Scholars hail from 17 states. These are high-achieving college sophomores and juniors, who display notable breadth and depth in their academic interests.
“I am extremely grateful and honored to be receiving this award from Phi Beta Kappa,” said Walia. “My community here at the University of Utah has provided me with a prodigious liberal arts and sciences education and has nurtured my interest in exploring the dynamics between science, society, and the public sector. I am excited for the incredible opportunity to further explore this interest this summer.”
Walia is an ACCESS Scholar and undergraduate researcher, working with Dr. Fred Adler, Professor of Biology and of Mathematics. In her research, Walia adapted an epidemiological SIR model for spread of disease to model the number of cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 in order to predict when different types of tests will produce false positives or false negatives.
“My summer in the ACCESS Scholars program sparked an interest and motivation to pursue a career in public service,” she said. “Being taught by faculty across the University of Utah in diverse disciplines, I learned about the intersections of science, communication, and policy and how scientists can practice the art of advocacy.
Muskan Walia
"My community here at the University of Utah has provided me with a prodigious liberal arts and sciences education and has nurtured my interest in exploring the dynamics between science, society, and the public sector."
“Working under the mentorship of Dr. Fred Adler has been invaluable. I wanted to be engaged in mathematics research that centered on justice and informed public policy. There was truly no better pairing than with Dr. Adler. He has wholeheartedly supported and encouraged my curiosity and passion to utilize mathematics principles to tackle the most pressing social justice related questions of our time.”
In addition to her studies, Walia currently serves as the ASUU student government Senate Chair and works as a youth environmental organizer in the Salt Lake City area. She founded a campaign to commit her local school district to a 100% clean electricity transition by 2030, and has assisted with the expansion of local clean energy campaigns in Utah school districts. She is also a leader and mentor at Utah Youth Environmental Solutions Network (UYES), where she supports the development of a new youth-based climate justice curriculum. Her experiences have cultivated a passion and commitment to community building, climate education, and environmental justice.
Each Key into Public Service Scholar will receive a $5,000 undergraduate scholarship and take part in a conference in late June in Washington, D.C. to provide them with training, mentoring, and reflection on pathways into active citizenship.
Below are the names of the 2022 Key into Public Service Scholars and their chapter institutions:
Aylar Atadurdyyeva, University of Kansas
Miguel Coste, University of Notre Dame
Noelle Dana, University of Notre Dame
Grace Dowling, Clark University
Brandon Folson, Loyola University Chicago
Justin Fox, University of Maryland- College Park
Sora Heo, University of California - San Diego
Alec Hoffman, Clark University
Samiha Islam, State University of New York at Buffalo
Ruthie Kesri, Duke University
Katherine Marin, University of Florida
Sondos Moursy, University of Houston
Olivia Negro, Ursinus College
Emily Geigh Nichols, Stanford University
Paul Odu, University of Missouri
Vaidehi Persad, University of South Florida
Diba Seddighi, University of Tennessee
James Suleyman, Roanoke College
Jonah Tobin, Williams College
Muskan Walia, University of Utah
For more information about the scholarship and links to individual biographies of the recipients, please visit pbk.org/KeyintoPublicService.
Societal Impact Scholar
Ken Golden Named U Presidential Societal Impact Scholar
President Taylor R. Randall has named Ken Golden, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, as an inaugural recipient of the University of Utah Presidential Societal Impact Scholar Award.
Dr. Golden and four other scholars are a select group of faculty. Recognized as experts in their respective fields and disciplines, they share and translate their scholarship, research, creative activities and ideas with opinion leaders, policy makers, the public and other audiences outside the university and in ways that can transform society.
Ken Golden
"Dr. Golden is among the rare group of top-level mathematical scientists who is able to reach to the broader public about one of the central issues of our time."
Golden is a brilliant expositor and a passionate advocate for public awareness of our changing climate and the critical role of mathematics in climate modeling. He has given over 40 invited public lectures since 2008, and over 500 invited lectures since 1984. His public lectures emphasize the rapid and significant loss of Arctic sea ice, and how mathematics is helping us predict the future of the Earth’s polar marine environment. Dr. Golden is among the rare group of top-level mathematical scientists who is able to reach to the broader public about one of the central issues of our time.
From tackling the social determinants of health and wellness, to addressing the underlying causes of crime and poverty, to designing interventions to curb poor air and water quality, to helping better inform public debate on society’s most pressing issues, these scholars’ works have a positive impact on people and institutions and help make our world a better, more equitable and enjoyable place in which to live.
The 2022 cohort of impact scholars are:
Kenneth Golden, Distinguished Professor, Department of Mathematics
RonNell Andersen Jones, Professor, College of Law
Michelle Litchman, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
Susie Porter, Professor, College of Humanities and the School for Cultural and Social Transformation
Paisley Rekdal, Distinguished Professor, Department of English
The Presidential Societal Impact Scholar Award was conceived by and is supported by a gift from University of Utah Professor Randy Dryer.