2018 Staff

The 2018 Faculty and Academic Coordinators:

  • Apurva Nakade is an academic coordinator for Mathcamp 2018. He is a fifth year graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, working in the areas of algebraic topology and homotopy theory. When not thinking about maths he enjoys dancing, reading and writing, yogaing, climbing, and backpacking.
  • Jeff Hicks first came to Mathcamp as a student in 2008 and will be an Academic Coordinator this summer. He is a PhD student at UC Berkeley with research interests in symplectic geometry and mirror symmetry. Outside of mathematics he enjoys salsa dancing, playing piano, and board games.
  • Kevin Carde has been teaching at Mathcamp since 2011. He received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 2014 and is now the Assistant Director of Mathcamp. His interests include combinatorics (especially algebraic) and solving and writing puzzles of all sorts.
  • Mark Krusemeyer is a Professor of Mathematics at Carleton College. His mathematical interests include algebra, combinatorics, number theory, and problem solving. His non-mathematical interests include recorder playing, hiking/scrambling, duplicate bridge, and table tennis. He has been a faculty member at Mathcamp since 1997.
  • Marisa Debowsky is the Executive Director of Mathcamp. Her mathematical interests include Topological Graph Theory and other combinatorial pursuits; outside of math, she enjoys singing, puzzles, and elaborate coffee brewing. She and has been teaching at Mathcamp since 2006.
  • Mira Bernstein has been one of the main organizers of Mathcamp since 1997. She received her PhD in Algebraic Geometry from Harvard University in 1999, and then launched a career in applied mathematics and statistics. She is now a research faculty member at Tufts University, where she works in the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group.
  • Misha Lavrov is a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Mathematically, he specializes in graph theory and Ramsey theory. Non-mathematically, he drinks many different kinds of tea, studies foreign languages, reads poetry, and bakes cookies. Misha was a student at Mathcamp in 2006 and 2007, and has been teaching here since 2014.
  • Susan Durst has been teaching at Mathcamp since 2008, and is currently a summer co-director. During the year, she is a mathematics faculty member at Proof School in San Francisco. Her mathematical interests include Ring Theory, Combinatorics, and Mathematical Logic. Her non-mathematical interests include dancing, music, cooking, and general silliness.

Mentors:

  • Aaron Landesman is a grad student at Stanford studying algebraic geometry and arithmetic geometry. He enjoys puzzles, Tichu, and Getting Things Done.
  • Ben Dees is a grad student at JHU. Mathematically, his interests include analysis and the history of mathematics; non-mathematically, they include all manner of games, swing dance, and reading or watching plays.
  • J-Lo (Jonathan Love) is a grad student at Stanford studying applications of algebraic geometry and number theory to cryptography, who spends a lot of the time playing, singing, and mathematizing music.
  • Larsen Linov is a grad student at UC Berkeley. He like geometric topology, crosswords, and ultimate frisbee.
  • Linus Hamilton is a grad student at MIT studying machine learning. He has strong opinions about game design.
  • Pesto (Adam Hesterberg) is a grad student at MIT studying computational geometry and computational complexity. He likes board games, kitties, and puzzles.
  • Shiyue Li is a first-year grad student at Yale. She enjoys algebraic geometry, number theory, topology, playing piano/classical guitar, reading, nature, good food and her 9-hour embedding every day.
  • Tim Black is a grad student at UChicago studying combinatorics and complexity. He is into hiking, improv comedy, and volleyball.
  • Vivian Kuperberg is a grad student at Stanford University. Her mathematical interests include topology and algebra, and her non-mathematical interests include all kinds of dancing and many kinds of puzzles.

JCs:

  • Agustin Garcia is a freshman at MIT studying (applied?) mathematics with a minor in music. He loves running, exploring cities, and eating chocolate.
  • Ania Łeń is a freshman at University of Warsaw studying math with some physics and computer science. She enjoys travelling, organizing educational events and drinking coffee.
  • Jessica Liu is in her second year at the University of Toronto studying math with a bit of computer science. She enjoys drawing pictures and playing board games.
  • Kenrick Bjelland is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota studying math, computer science, and classics. He enjoys American football and Latin poetry.
  • Laura Pierson is a freshman at Harvard studying applied math. She enjoys social dancing, theater, and volunteering.
  • Sara Fish is a freshman at Caltech studying math. She likes exploring new places, playing violin/viola/viola da gamba, and frog fractions.
  • Scott Harvey-Arnold is a freshman at Carnegie Mellon studying math. He likes Ultimate Frisbee, playing piano, and pretending to play the viola.
  • Travis Dillon is a freshman at Lawrence University studying mathematics. He enjoys playing, listening to, and thinking about music and reading as much as he can.

Generally Helpful Person:

  • Gloria Krusemeyer has been the Generally Helpful Person at Mathcamp for many years. Campers will see her running craft projects, organizing dancing events, and using her engineering-oriented brain to solve real-world problems.

Camp Nurse:

  • Jackie Platt is a school nurse in the Denver Public Schools. She received her BSN from the University of Central Florida in 1984 and has been living in Denver, CO since 1990. She enjoys hiking, paddle boarding with Guinness the scottish terrier, tai chi, working on cool cars, and gardening.