I came to Michigan Tech to pursue my doctorate in discrete mathematics. I have greatly enjoyed studying theoretical mathematics and continuously growing in my role as an educator. I am grateful to my advisor, David Hemmer, for his encouragement and support throughout my research work in combinatorial representation theory. Part of my work is combinatorially computing the first non-zero Schaper layer for the Specht module in prime characteristic. I also have work in partition theory, where I published a paper with my advisor on palindrome partitions and relations to the Calkin-Wilf tree. Additionally, I have studied symmetric functions, where I prove an identity between an alternating sum of power sum symmetric functions and a product of monomial symmetric functions. This work leads to applications of characters of the symmetric group.
I look back and cherish my time in graduate student government, serving as a department representative, treasurer, and president. I am thankful for the guidance given to me by the Graduate School, especially Dr. Cantrell, Dr. Deb Charlesworth, and Jacque Smith.
I have been a teaching instructor in the mathematics department. I am grateful to the department for allowing me to teach an upper level mathematics course, Introduction to Abstract Algebra. I was awarded the Outstanding GTI in the mathematics department and the Dean’s Award for Graduate Teaching Instruction. I appreciate my teaching mentors for their mentorship and support.
I look forward to the future of staying in academia, serving students through teaching and service, and pursuing my research interests. I am appreciative to the Graduate School and the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel for the Doctoral Finishing Fellowship.