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Rarefied Air STORY BY BRITTANY HANSON PHOTOS BY DENNIS ARP
President Daniele Struppa offers a soaring perspective on research. It’s “a form of therapy,” he says. “The more I discover, the more I want to know.”
Tent-bound at 21,000 feet on the side of Cho Oyu in the Himalayas, Daniele Struppa recovered from altitude-induced edema and did the only other reasonable thing he could. He started work on a research paper exploring a mathematical theory he had been carrying with him for a while. “It wasn’t the full-fledged paper,” he clarified. “But with math, you can do the work in a very austere environment.” An avid mountaineer as well as an internationally known mathematician, Struppa has also toted his affinity for research to the tops of peaks in the Alps and Andes. In his current role as president of Chapman University, his research explorations continue. Far from base camp, in the comfort of his Memorial Hall office and within arm’s reach of his well-used whiteboard, we sat down with Struppa to ask him about the ascendant world of research at Chapman.
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CHAPMAN FORWARD
