Mathematical Sciences Foundry

Monday May 8 at 4pm in Olin 201. An interdisciplinary approach only requires an open mind and a sprinkle of serendipity. This talk will be a brief overview of my journey through STEM and how I was able to approach biological problems by starting with faint recollections from my mathematics training. Each problem required me to learn new concepts in biology and relearn mathematics to solve a problem. In this talk I will discuss three vignettes on how I applied mathematics to solve a protein geometry problem, to simplify a complex network based on gene-to-gene relationships, and to determine the processes that underlie the decay of biological molecules. All three stories share a central theme: learn as you go and be open to ideas! Bio: Matthew Tien is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Whitman College. His research interests center on finding novel gene-regulatory systems in bacteria and engineering microbes for bioremediation efforts. Matthew was an undergraduate at the University of

Monday April 24 at 4pm in Olin 201. Riley Foreman '15 will talk about business analytics, as part of her role within Hippo . Riley partners with various business units to solve highly analytical and operational problems. She will be sharing one of her recent analyses that helped inform the day-to-day activities of Hippo's new Account Management team and efforts to retain customers within the Hippo Agency. Riley will also discuss how her liberal arts and mathematics background helps her navigate the highly-regulated and complex insurance industry and understand how other areas of the company, such as the actuarial team, affects overall strategy and operations.   Bio: Riley Foreman '15 is currently the manager of business operations and finance at Hippo Insurance. After completing a combined degree in Economics-Mathematics from Whitman College, she began her career in ESPN's Stats & Info Group as a Production Researcher, providing stats-driven storylines to b

Monday April 10 at 4pm in Olin 201. Brooke Taylor will discuss a career path in Business Intelligence, a technical role combining mathematics and computer science to deliver key insights to organizations on trends, drivers, and areas of opportunity through working with data. She will walk through the skills required in the role and how her experiences at Whitman and in internships played a role in her success, provide examples of business problems she has worked on at Amazon, and also outline similar roles and how they differ (e.g. Data Science, Business/Data Analyst, Data Engineer).   Bio: Brooke graduated from Whitman in 2018, majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Computer Science and Physics. She is currently a Senior Business Intelligence Engineer at Amazon, and over the past five years has worked on business problems in Alexa, Customer Service, and Supply Chain. While she began her Amazon journey out in Boston, she is now back in the Seattle area living with two cat