January 29, 2025
How did you decide to become a math major?
I was drawn to the math major for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the biggest was that I wanted to more deeply understand concepts that I had encountered in high school. Why is there no quintic formula? How does the determinant relate to volume? How does one rigorously formulate Stokes’ theorem? These questions, among many others, motivated me to study proof-based math. My studies of math have, in turn, provided an uncountable number of new fascinating questions that I want to investigate, so learning math has become a wonderful interplay of curiosity and fulfillment.
Favorite math course(s) and why?
This question is difficult since I have loved so many of the math courses that I have taken here. If I had to pick one, I would probably choose Prof. Neves’s MATH 20900 course on measure theory. I absolutely fell in love with the subject. It is so unifying in nature: for every notion of size—volume, probability, number of elements, etc.—there is a corresponding notion of integral—Riemann integral, expected value, sum, etc. Furthermore, the Lebesgue integral is so strikingly flexible and powerful, and many theorems in the subject (e.g., the Radon-Nikodym theorem) have beautiful physical interpretations.
Do you have any special story to tell that reflects your experience as a math major?
I think that learning math is primarily about stacking little improvements of knowledge and understanding on top of each other. Every time that you understand a new definition, or make a connection between two concepts, or work through the details of a proof, or figure out an exercise, or discuss math with a friend, is a special moment; these are the moments that reflect what learning math is all about.
What are your aspirations?
Learning math has been immensely fulfilling for me, so I want to keep studying as much math as I can.
What are you excited about doing after graduation? (If you know)
Right now, I’m hoping to go to graduate school for math and then become a math professor.
