Math Major = Career Multiplier

Lakmali Weerasena uses her math skills to protect native wildlife and plants from invasive species.

A UC Foundation associate professor in the Department of Math at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she received a $249,860 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund research at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center at the base of Lookout Mountain.

Her project uses math to predict the growth rate and direction of privet, an extremely invasive plant. The goal is to find ways to protect native plants.

“Conservation biologists and wildlife managers are challenged with designing protected area networks optimized for biodiversity conservation,” Weerasena says.

“Although protecting extensive wildlands with the entire assemblage of native species in large population sizes is the ecologically prudent solution, such goals are challenging to attain due to limitations in funds, monitoring capabilities and other resources.”

A degree in math is not just a one-way street to careers in accounting, teaching, banking or finance. It’s a superhighway to others.

“One of the inaccurate stereotypes of math majors is that they either teach high school, become actuaries or go to graduate school,” says Dr. Christopher Cox, head of the Department of Math.

“Clearly, those are all worthwhile pursuits, but there are many other types of employment that a math degree qualifies one for, especially if their studies include some courses in a related field such as computer science. For example, math majors get hired to be statisticians, information security analysts and data scientists.”

Cox is working with UC Foundation Professor Dr. Boris Belinskiy and Anthropology Assistant Professor Morgan Smith on a project using sonar to locate the remains of indigenous archaeological sites at the bottom of the Tennessee River, Harrison Bay and other local waterways.

Math equations are being developed to predict how sonar will identify tools, dwellings, utensils and other artifacts depending on such factors as the depth of the water, what type of sediment is covering the artifact and what material was used to create it.

Math also has been a staple in medical research throughout history. In his iconic, 15th-century Vitruvian Man drawing, Leonardo da Vinci used math to reflect what he believed were the ideal proportions of the human body. Thomas Malthus published his groundbreaking research into human population growth in 1798.

Modern medicine uses math extensively, including research conducted by UTC professors and students.

Jin Wang, professor and Unum Chair of Excellence in Applied Mathematics, and his Ph.D. students are trying to better understand how COVID-19 infections change over time.

Assistant Professor Xiunan Wang is tracing the factors that influence infection rates of COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS.

Associate Professor Lani Gao is helping physicians and clinicians at Erlanger Hospital and the UT College of Medicine with their medical research.

Cox, Belinskiy and Jamie Cummins, a Ph.D. student in applied mathematics, are using equations to try to prevent arrhythmia.

Since summer 2021, they have been working with South Carolina-based cardiologist Dr. Don Rubenstein, who specializes in tracing the pathways of electrical currents that travel through the heart.

To treat arrythmia, Cummins explains, electrodes are placed in the heart to pinpoint where the problematic electrical charge starts. When one is located, the specific area of the heart is burned or frozen—a process known as ablation—by a tiny electrode to kill the cells creating the problem.

But the process is basically whack-amole, Cummins says. You treat one spot, and another pops up.

“With our mathematical model, hopefully, that would increase the chance of pinpointing where these spiral rotors are,” he says, “which would ultimately result in a more successful surgery.”