Contemporary Mathematics: Contemporary Mathematics at Nebraska

Federico Ardila is a professor at San Francisco State University and an adjunct at Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. His primary area of research is combinatorics. Since combinatorics involves methods of counting, it is heavily used for discrete probability distributions. In addition to his own math research, Ardila has worked to encourage underrepresented groups within mathematics, with the goal of ensuring that everyone has access to joyful and meaningful mathematical experiences.

Mario Banuelos is an assistant professor at California State University, Fresno. After earning his Ph.D. in applied mathematics, he has focused on developing statistical and computational models that utilize large data sets for analyzing mathematical biology. Banuelos has also worked on machine learning methods for classification problems in both biology and imaging. Born to an immigrant mother, Banuelos experienced and recognized her hard work as a grape farmworker and her dedication to provide a better life and education for her children.

Carla Cotwright-Williams is a Technical Director and Data Scientist for the United States Department of Defense. While her Ph.D. dissertation involved mathematical objects called matroids, her more recent work has included using statistics to prevent social security fraud, estimate savings from implementing government programs, and improve drone control systems for NASA. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Mississippi in 2006, the second African-American woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics there.

Lesly Goh is a Senior Technology Advisor for the World Bank Group, where she focuses on bringing large-scale technology to developing countries. Goh is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council and has worked on new technologies including blockchain and artificial intelligence. One of her goals is to empower women and girls through the use of technology.

Jordan Harrod is working on her Ph.D. at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. Harrod’s research includes machine learning and neurotechnology. Harrod is also known for creating videos about the ways in which artificial intelligence impact our daily lives which are shared on her YouTube channel:

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www.youtube.com/jordanharrod

Jeffrey Tullis Leek is Chief Data Officer and Vice President of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Previously, he was a Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Tullis got his Ph. D. in Biostatistics from University of Washington in 2007. He writes a blog titled “Simply Statistics” and teaches several courses about data science online. One of his most popular courses is called “The Data Scientist’s Toolbox’, which he co-teaches with two other colleagues

Racine Ly is from Senegal in West Africa. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences through the French Space Agency (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and the University of Bordeaux. Ly uses Machine Learning techniques to study geospatial data for building digital tools to impact policy and decision-making processes in the agricultural sector. He serves as the Director of Data Management for AKADEMIYA2063, an organization that uses research to boost growth and prosperity for African economies. Ly has a connection to UNL; his wife, Masake (Kane) Ly, earned her Master of Arts for Teachers degree from the UNL Mathematics Department in 2017.

Jane Meza graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2000 with a Ph.D. in Statistics. Meza began her career at the Nebraska College of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and from 2010-2017 served as Chair of the UNMC Department of Biostatistics in the College of Public Health. She has held numerous titles including Senior Associate Dean of the College of Public Health (UNMC, 2014-2018) and the Interim Executive Director of the Office of Health Safety (UNO, 2020). In 2023 she was named the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs for UNMC. Meza’s methodological research focuses on clinical trials and have been extended to disease mapping to estimate the probability of rare events. She has been responsible for the statistical components of numerous projects in public health research.

Mollie Orshanksy (1915-2006) was a statistician and economist and served for 13 years as the Director of the Program Statistics Division for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She was also a research analyst in social sciences for the Social Security Administration. She is well known for developing the “poverty thresholds” that are used by the government to measure levels of poverty throughout the United States.

Donald Richards is a Professor Emeritus (retired professor) of statistics at Pennsylvania State University. Before Pennsylvania State he has had positions at several institutions including the universities the West Indies, North Carolina, Wyoming, and Virginia. In 1778, Richards earned his Ph.D. in statistics from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He did this just two years after completing his undergraduate degree also at the University of the West Indies. His current research interests include statistical analysis with multiple variables, which he applies to a wide variety of fields, including astrophysics, finance, and medical imaging.

Talitha Washington was raised in Evansville, Indiana. In 2001 she earned her PH.D. in mathematics from the University of Connecticut. Later, after having earned a Ph.D., Washington learned that she grew up in the same neighborhood as Elbert Frank Cox (1895–1969), the first black person in the world to earn a PhD in mathematics. From 2011 to 2020 Washington was a proffesor of mathematics at Howard University, coincidentally where Cox also taught. Washington has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year Award and the STEM Innovator Award. While working at Howard she also was a program director at the National Science Foundation. In 2020 she was appointed the inaugural director of the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC) Data Science Initiative. The goal of this initiative is to prepare faculty and students to be innovators of solutions that advance data science and lead to practices that diversify the workforce, particularly in areas that impact Black America. She is the current president of the Association for Women in Mathematics(AWM). Elected in 2023, she is the first Black AWM president.