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India Abroad June 10, 2016

NEWS & COMMUNITY

Kaavya Valiveti, Berkeley’s top graduating student The pure math student, who is headed to MIT, is now ready to take on the challenge of a PhD and gender bias in STEM, Ritu Jha discovers.

or Kaavya Valiveti, a math major graduate of 2016, receiving the University Medal of the University of California Berkeley — given to the most distinguished graduating senior on campus — is a celebration of the values and ideals that her family and teachers have instilled in her. The medal recognizes outstanding scholarship, public service and strength of character. “I viewed this award more as recognition of those who’ve supported me throughout the years,” Valiveti, 21, tells India Abroad, referring to her family — her father Radhakrishna is an electrical engineer and mother Natana, a financial planner, musician and artist —and the Berkeley mathematics department. It’s an acknowledgement she also made in her commencement speech, noting that her parents and her math professor not only helped her feel that she, a woman, could pursue mathematics, but even Kaavya Valiveti received inspired her to do so. an honorable mention for Valiveti, who doesn’t the Alice T Schafer Prize, remember at what age which is awarded by the she developed an interAssociation for Women in est in math, but says Mathematics to the most that for as long as she outstanding US female can remember her love math undergraduate. for the subject has only She has a near-perfect deepened, tells India GPA of 3.99 and plays the harmonium and the Abroad, “Yes, even in cello. the United States, gender bias is big in STEM.” Though, as the topic of the gender disparity in STEM becomes more openly discussed — as it has been in the past few years — she is optimistic that it will improve. “I must also say that girls growing up in Indian communities across the US are not faced with the same barriers to joining STEM as girls in other communities. In fact, from my observation, several Indian-American girls are actively encouraged to join STEM and so many ultimately have fantastic careers in STEM, which I believe is something for the Indian-American community as a whole to be very proud of,” she adds.

orn in Ottawa, Canada, Valiveti came to the United States in 1998, first settling in Texas and then moving to California. Asked if U C, Berkeley was her first choice she says, “Berkeley was definitely one of my top choices, along with Stanford University and a few of the east coast schools.” And its math department as well as the facts that her older brother also went there and that it was conveniently close to home helped her make the final choice. “After four years, I feel even more strongly that Berkeley is such a fantastic, vibrant place that has so much to offer everyone, and given the chance to make my college decision again I would undoubtedly make the same choice,” she says. Valiveti, armed with an award of $2,500 received with the University Medal and the National Science Foundation and Norman Levinson Fellowships, will now be going to MIT to earn her PhD.

“I am still not sure what exactly my PhD will be about,” she says. “I have finished my undergrad with a feel for the flavor of different areas of math, as well as a sense of which areas I seem to like more, like analysis, mathematical physics. But I would still like to explore more and broaden my knowledge for the first few years at MIT before deciding what I would be writing a thesis on.” Valiveti has said that it was linear algebra that hooked her on pure math. ‘By her senior year, she was surpassing all expectations,’ Berkeley News says, adding that UC Berkeley math professor Marc Rieffel, who taught her in his graduate course on Banach Algebra, had said, ‘She was working on the same level as top second-year graduate students on material close to the research frontier.’

Asked about it, she says, “Linear algebra is not really one of the main, active areas of research these days. It is more a branch that intersects with most other branches of modern mathematics. One needs to be well-versed in this tool to approach most areas of research.” “I am most interested in a subject called analysis, its interactions with algebra and geometry, as well as mathematical physics,” she added. “I am currently not working on any research, but am just trying to deepen my understanding of some topics in those subjects in preparation for grad school.” Valiveti has spoken openly about the difference math made to her life, pulling her out of the depression and anxiety that plagued her in high school and building her confidence. But asked if she has any one inspiration in this journey so far, she says she finds inspiration not in just one person, but in all of the incredible people she encounters daily. “I see in so many people the spirit of humanity and our tremendous capacity to do great things and make tangible changes in our society,” she elaborates. “I hope to one day become a professor doing research in mathematics full-time, but at the same time still very involved in the community service and outreach projects I am in now (she has been involved in tutoring disadvantaged Latino students in Oakland and Berkeley and raising money to improve an underfunded rural elementary school in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, among others), hopefully, at a larger scale.”

‘This is the big one man!’ 3Page A4 ‘A few gray hairs later, that dinner table conversation continues as we are focused on standing up for the middle class and working to make sure that we come together as a country instead of casting stones and insults at our fellow Americans.’ Asked how it came about, Krishnamoorthi told India Abroad, “It’s just one of those things, where we had been communicating with the White House, and they thought this was the right time. The timing is perfect, and we couldn’t have asked for a more generous statement from the President. We are very, very happy.” Noting that, “the statement came directly from the White House,” he said the endorsement would be a major boost to his fundraising as he prepares for the November general. “It will help us in mobilizing resources, (but) we have to work really hard to follow through and maximize our ability to mobilize the generosity of our community.” In this regard, he reiterated that although all of the polls, punditry and reports believe that he is shoo-in, “I believe we have to work doubly hard in this very strange political year to ensure that our voters get out, that our message is received — and that message is very simple, how do we grow and strengthen the middle class. Period. End of story.” And the President’s endorsement, he felt, helped reinforce that message. “For a President, who puts working families first on his agenda, to endorse someone like myself, who’s also trying to do the same thing — it just reinforces the message,” he said. “I definitely think that we are aligned on many issues regarding working families, and I believe that the most important thing that unifies us, is our belief that we have to grow and strengthen the middle class. And, that’s been the mission of my campaign to put this issue front and center, and I believe that the President agrees on that particular issue as well.” He added, “I am confident that if we do everything in our power to get that message through, it’ll resonate with people.” Asked if there was any chance of the President getting out to Chicago to campaign with him, Krishnamoorthi, said, “That might be a little difficult given that he had so many responsibilities, but you never know how these things play out.” A senior Democratic Party source concurred, telling India Abroad that the President getting out to Chicago in person was unlikely, “although not an impossibility.” “The President’s first priority is making sure that we have a Democrat in the White House after he leaves,” the source explained. “So, from a political standpoint the President is going to be campaigning in a lot of battleground states — places like Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida and so forth. He may not have time to go out to safe Democratic states like Illinois, where we are very confident that Raja will win big and make for a great Congressman in working for the middleclass of this country.”

rishnamoorthi has the support of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, including in terms of matching funds. He said, “The House leadership is supporting me… Individual members have donated to my campaign; they are having a fundraising reception for me next week in Washington, DC. I feel very gratified to have their support, and it will definitely make a difference.” He has also won endorsements from Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, US Senator from Illinois Richard Durbin, former Senior Advisor to the President David Axelrod and from the new main newspapers in the area, The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times. Krishnamoorthi registered a big win in the Democratic Congressional primary in March, defeating the state senator. He polled 57 percent of the votes, routing State Senator Mike Noland (29 percent) and Deb Bullwinkel (13 percent). In the November 8 general elections, Krishnamoorthi now faces Republican Peter DiCianni.