A Love for Puzzles Elena Cherkaev, professor and director of graduate studies for the Math Department, has always enjoyed solving logical paradoxes, and she believes mathematics is full of such intellectual challenges. She is also interested in linguistics, philosophy, and art history.
Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Cherkaev received a Ph.D. in mathematics from St. Petersburg State University. She studied measure and game theory for her master’s degree but later switched her focus to partial differential equations, optimization, and numerical methods. After graduation, she worked in the Academy of Sciences studying the Earth’s magnetic field and propagation of electromagnetic waves.
Director of Graduate Studies
Elena Cherkaev
Last spring Elena became the director of graduate studies for the department while continuing to teach and do research. “I have great faculty members and staff who help me to keep on track,” she said. She works with faculty and staff, including Paula Tooman, Karl Schwede, Kelly MacArthur, Maggie Cummings, Lajos Horvath, and others. “Paula is an indispensable member of the department,” said Cherkaev. “She knows everything about the graduate program—she watches every deadline and keeps track of events, and she truly cares about each student.” Cherkaev also relies on Karl Schwede, who served as the director of the program before her. He created an electronic system to keep all the graduate records together and to track a student’s progress. With help from math professor Nelson Beebe, Schwede created a thesisformatting template, so graduate students who use the template no longer have to send their thesis to the Thesis Office for format approval. Cherkaev noted the excellent graduate teaching workshops organized and run by Kelly MacArthur, the supervising and advising done by Maggie Cummings for the master’s degree in teaching, and the guidance Lajos Horvath provides for the master’s degree in statistics. “We have a strong graduate program,” said Cherkaev, “and I depend on these individuals and others to keep it running smoothly and effectively.” As with any graduate studies program, the goal is to prepare students for their future professional life. “In recent years, there has been a growing interest and demand in industry for statisticians and data scientists, and some graduate students choose
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