Hailey Lynch
B.S. Mathematics
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Plans: Investment Fellow, T. Rowe Price

The education I have received at UMBC has undoubtedly prepared me to enter the professional world. I truly believe that I would not be the thinker that I am today had I chosen to attend another institution.

Hailey Lynch is an academic powerhouse, earning her degree in mathematics with a perfect 4.0 record, supported by numerous competitive university and state scholarships. She has also worked hard to take advantage of prestigious internship opportunities that have opened the door to an engaging industry career. While at UMBC, Lynch has completed internships with the Hershey Company and UMBC’s department of physics. She says UMBC’s Career Center support was instrumental in preparing her for a career upon graduation.

Lynch shares that she is particularly thankful for the nurturing and supportive faculty, staff, and students who helped shape her educational experience. “I am surrounded each and every day by peers who continue to astonish me with their intelligence and drive,” she says.

Images: Hailey Lynch shares her personal story with prospective students and their families at UMBC’s New Student Day; photo courtesy of Hailey Lynch. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

After debuting at UMBC in November 2014, The Mathematics of Being Human is ready to launch its first full production in the United States. Five productions of the play are scheduled from March 30 – April 2 at the University of Pittsburgh’s Henry Heymann Theatre and it is produced by University of Pittsburgh Stages.

The play, written by Michele Osherow, an associate professor of English, and Manil Suri, a mathematics professor, is inspired by their experiences jointly teaching a freshman seminar that bridged their two areas of expertise. The production was a natural outgrowth of a popular Chronicle of Higher Education article series. When it debuted at UMBC, it was directed by Alan Kreizenbeck, an associate professor of theatre, and Savannah Jo Chamberlain ’16, theatre, and Chaz Atkinson ’16, theatre, portrayed students in the seminar.

Since then, the play has garnered strong praise and it has traveled to San Antonio, New York City, and Baltimore. Most recently, the play had its first international production in New Delhi earlier this year by Atelier Productions. The play received a positive review in the January notice of the American Mathematical Society.

For more information about this significant milestone for The Mathematics of Being Human, visit the University of Pittsburgh website.

Image: Mathematics of Being Human debuts at UMBC. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

Congressman Elijah Cummings visited UMBC this month to speak with faculty, staff, and students from across the university about UMBC’s national leadership as a research university and commitment to growing Baltimore through long-term partnerships in local communities.

The morning focused on several major UMBC research centers and labs. Joining Congressman Cummings were Belay Demoz, director of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET); Jan Merka, director of the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute (GPHI); Jane Turner, associate director of the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST); Gymama Slaughter, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering and director of the Bioelectronics Laboratory; and Lee Boot, associate director of the Imaging Research Center (IRC).

Tyson King-Meadows, incoming associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research, also offered their perspectives on UMBC’s well-rounded research portfolio, beyond the conversation’s focus on research strengths in physics, geosciences, space science, and bioengineering.

After a brief campus tour, Congressman Cummings met with several leaders among UMBC staff whose work focuses on students’ academic success, including Renetta Tull, associate vice provost for graduate student development; Keith Harmon, director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and others.

The congressman also spoke at length with scholars from UMBC’s three colleges: Sheniqua Brown ’15, M.S. chemical engineering; Marina Congedo ’17, physics and ancient studies; Ciara Davis ’17, mechanical engineering; Joseph Hunter ’16, biological sciences; Da’Kuawn Johnson ’17, biochemistry; Naomi Mburu ’17, chemical engineering; Larry Morton ’16, biological sciences; Alexis O’Malley ’16, psychology and mathematical sciences; Andreas Seas ’16, mechanical engineering; and Manisha Vepa ’18, economics and global studies.

These students represented the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program, Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and UMBC Honors College. They are pursuing a range of PhD and MD/PhD programs and the most prestigious national and internships and fellowships available. They also spoke of their experiences with and deep personal commitments to community engagement in Baltimore, supporting local groups from refugee communities to elementary school students.

Images: Congressman Elijah Cummings visits UMBC on March 10, 2016. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Nationwide, just 4 percent of full-time professors are black and 3 percent are Hispanic. What will it take to move the dial on the representation of diverse faculty at U.S. colleges and universities? American Public Media’s Marketplace, a leading radio program on business and the economy, tackles this question in two new stories highlighting UMBC’s work to train, recruit, hire and retain diverse faculty.

“Building a more diverse faculty” shines a spotlight on UMBC postdoctoral fellow Keisha Allen, education, and her experience transitioning from graduate student to faculty member. Allen is receiving mentorship from Mavis Sanders, professor of education, and Claudia Galindo, associate professor of language, literacy, and culture.

The story follows Sanders as she supports Allen in building the confidence to present her research to colleagues without notes, relying on her knowledge as an expert in culturally responsive pedagogy and adolescent literacy.

“You have to sort of own that identity, that now you are the expert,” Sanders explained. “It just takes practice.”

Allen is part of the newest cohort of the Postdoctoral Fellows for Faculty Diversity program, which is designed to support scholars who are emerging as cutting-edge researchers and educators in their fields and who are committed to supporting diversity in the academy.

Tyson King-Meadows, professor of political science, chair of Africana studies, and co-chair of the Executive Committee for the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Underrepresented Minority Faculty, explains the major goals of the postdoctoral fellows program in the Marketplace story.

“The purpose of the program is to get them prepared for the professoriate and for them to understand all the nuances of being a faculty member of color or a particular gender,” King-Meadows says.

Edward Glover ’16 mathematics, a Meyerhoff Scholar and president of the Black Student Union, has worked closely with UMBC administration and faculty in addressing faculty diversity. He described in the radio story how he’d like to see UMBC faculty increasingly reflect the student body’s diversity.

The second segment, “A university confronts bias in faculty hiring,” shifts the focus to UMBC’s initiatives to address bias in the faculty hiring process, an all too common problem in higher education, across academic fields. King-Meadows describes the need for STRIDE, UMBC’s Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence committee. This groups is developing tools to make recruitment processes more open and fair, to ensure the university hires the best candidate for each position rather than the candidate most similar to those managing the hiring process.

Susan McDonough, associate professor of history, highlights the importance of white faculty advocating for diversity in hiring and pointing out bias during the process.

“The burden has to be more on the majority culture to do it more than we do it,” she says. “I’ve seen it in my classrooms that, when students of color point out bias, there’s often a willingness to dismiss it that would not have been there if it had been a majority person who had shared that thought.”

Christopher Murphy, professor and chair of psychology, goes on to describe the work being done at UMBC to educate professors about unconscious biases that can unfairly eliminate qualified candidates during faculty searches.

Marketplace reporter Amy Scott notes that UMBC is well-known as one of the most diverse research universities in the country.

“Many people know us because we’ve had considerable success in educating students of all races in science and engineering,” President Freeman Hrabowski told Scott. “Our graduation and retention rates for African Americans and other students of color are as high as they are for any other group.”

Provost Philip Rous takes from this success inspiration to tackle the next important challenge: increasing the diversity of UMBC’s faculty. Although UMBC is ahead of the national average, Provost Rous says, “I would be the first to say that we’re not where we want to be, and this is probably the highest strategic priority I have as provost.”

“Talented minority faculty are not unicorns,” says King-Meadows. “It just depends on where you’re looking.”

Listen to the complete two-part series below:

Building a more diverse faculty
A university confronts bias in faculty hiring

Read more about faculty diversity initiatives at UMBC.

Image: Mejdulene Shomali, gender and women’s studies; Nkiru Nnawulezi, psychology; and Keisha Allen, education, meet with President Hrabowski. All images by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Since it debuted at UMBC in November 2014, The Mathematics of Being Human has garnered strong praise and it has traveled to San Antonio, New York City, and Baltimore. Its latest review comes in advance of an independent production of the play in New Delhi in January.

Stephen Abbott, a professor of mathematics at Middlebury College, reviewed the play for the January notice of the American Mathematical Society. Praising it for building off of real life experiences to explore studying mathematics and the humanities, Abbott gave the production a positive review.

“Witty and lighthearted, The Mathematics of Being Human is at its core a heady piece that engages its audience’s minds without making any sustained attempt to engage its hearts,” Abbott wrote in the review.” He added: “So is this play an argument for or against interdisciplinary teaching? Like a good piece of art, The Mathematics of Being Human doesn’t make this obvious or absolute for its viewers.”

The play, written by Michele Osherow, an associate professor of English, and Manil Suri, a mathematics professor, is inspired by their experiences jointly teaching a freshman seminar that bridged their two areas of expertise. The production was a natural outgrowth of a popular Chronicle of Higher Education article series and it debuted at UMBC in November 2014. It was directed by Alan Kreizenbeck, an associate professor of theatre, and Savannah Jo Chamberlain ’16, theatre, and Chaz Atkinson ’16, theatre, portrayed students in the seminar.

The Mathematics of Being Human is scheduled to be performed as an independent production with a new cast at the American Center in New Delhi on January 14 and 15, 2016. A future production will take place at the University of Pittsburgh.

Read Stephen Abbott’s full review in the January American Mathematical Society notice.

Image: Mathematics of Being Human debuts at UMBC. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

The Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) partnership, which just celebrated twenty years at UMBC, has renewed its cooperative agreement with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, bringing up to $46 million to JCET and UMBC over the next five years.

JCET was formed in 1995 as an innovative collaboration between the Earth Sciences Division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and UMBC. Belay Demoz, physics, joined JCET as director in 2014. Danita Eichenlaub serves as administrative director.

“The work that goes on in JCET is an exceptional example of UMBC’s commitment to strengthening education and research through national partnerships,” says Karl Steiner, vice president for research.

For twenty years JCET has brought leading scientists to UMBC in research areas that align with NASA’s Earth science interests, such as climate and radiation, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, and solar system sciences, including geophysics. UMBC is now ranked among the world’s top universities for geosciences (2015 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities).

Among JCET researchers making waves internationally is Jay Herman, a senior research scientist whose work recently made news with the launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Herman serves as an instrument scientist for this NASA-NOAA-Air Force mission, which will look at the Earth and solar wind from 932,000 miles away.

On the NASA Goddard campus, JCET is recognized as an often emulated model of a well-run university center that works seamlessly with a government laboratory. “Still,” says Demoz, “JCET remains distinctive among these leading research centers in its fundamental commitment to graduate and undergraduate education.” JCET researchers frequently teach and mentor UMBC students, and JCET scientists who have benefited from this dual focus on teaching and research have gone on to become leaders in their fields.

The center has contributed substantially to both undergraduate and graduate teaching through courses and seminars across disciplines, including the departments of physics, geography and environmental systems, chemistry and biochemistry, and mathematics and statistics. JCET faculty led the formation of UMBC’s internationally recognized atmospheric physics program, and graduate students in JCET work both at UMBC an on-site at NASA Goddard.

The Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) project, which wrapped up a marathon field campaign this July, is just one example of a compelling initiative with both important research and educational impacts.

Night time storms producing tornadoes, thunder, lightning, strong winds, and hail are notoriously difficult to predict. Through PECAN, scientists from 14 universities and eight research labs studied evening precipitation and convection in the plains to improve predictions of whether storms will stay elevated or make their way down to the surface. Demoz and JCET scientists Ruben Delgado, Kevin Vermeesch, and Brian Carroll, a graduate student in physics, participated in the field research, as well as two UMBC undergraduate interns. Since the team’s return, several UMBC undergraduates have focused on analyzing the resulting data. Their findings could lead to improved storm predictions, providing invaluable information for communities at risk of severe weather.

“With a proven track record of successful partnerships like PECAN,” says Demoz, “JCET is paving the way for groundbreaking UMBC collaborations with NASA and other agencies, shaping the future of Earth sciences.”

Image: Dust storm over the Canary Islands. Photo by NASA

In his latest New York Times column, Mathematics Professor Manil Suri wrote about the underrepresentation of LGBT professionals in STEM. The column, titled “Why is Science so Straight?” explored the reasons for the invisibility of LGBT members in STEM fields, what Suri called an “unspoken convention.”

“Underrepresentation is just one factor that reduces visibility. Unlike women and minorities, whose status is usually obvious, sexual orientation is a hidden characteristic. The fact that a sizable proportion of the L.G.B.T. STEM work force is closeted (43 percent, according to a 2015 estimate) further deepens this effect,” he wrote.

Suri also noted that the STEM work culture could play a role in reduced LGBT visibility: “There is a another, more insidious factor at work. STEM culture is very problem-focused. Conversations, even over lunch, typically remain restricted to work matters (which is very different from what I’ve noticed in arts and humanities settings),” he explained.

In his column, Suri provided perspective on how STEM professions could move forward in regards to increasing diversity: “More critically, STEM culture must rein in the pressure to separate professional and personal identities. It should view its workers more holistically, welcoming their interests and differences as sources of enhanced resourcefulness.”

Suri is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Read his previous columns on the New York Times website.

Mathematics Professor and New York Times Contributing Opinion Writer Manil Suri recently published his latest op-ed about abortion politics and legislation in India. In his column, Suri reacted to an amendment proposed last year by the Indian government that would allow abortions to be performed by specially trained registered nurses and licensed practitioners of traditional and alternative medicine systems. Suri analyzed the ongoing debate in India over the proposal, stating that “the real root of the tension is the government’s promotion of alternative medicine as a medically equivalent but cheaper alternative to allopathic (modern) medicine.”

Providing further context, Suri explained that, “There are legitimate concerns against giving equal status to Ayush and allopathic medicine. Although Ayush treatments can be effective in managing chronic conditions, very few are backed by scientifically rigorous evidence…Nevertheless, Ayush doctors provide invaluable services in rural and impoverished urban areas, where allopathic doctors are reluctant to practice. A long-term government goal, consistent with recommendations from the World Health Organization, is to integrate the two systems. This presents ethical and logistical challenges, so progress can be expected to be slow and marked by bouts of friction.”

Read “India’s Inverted Abortion Politics” in The New York Times.

Alycia Marshall ’95, mathematics, was named one of 100 Inspiring Women in STEM by Insight into Diversity for her work with the Engineering Scholars Program at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC).

Marshall drew on her experience working with Meyerhoff Scholars at UMBC to start the Engineering Scholars Program at AACC with help from a National Science Foundation grant. As the principal investigator for the program, Marshall was instrumental in connecting underrepresented students with scholarships, mentoring, and support services.

Read “AACC professor selected for national STEM award” on Eye on Annapolis.

Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court announced a nationwide right to same-sex marriage on Friday, June 26, Manil Suri was interviewed by Public Radio International (PRI) for his reaction to the ruling. Suri, a professor of mathematics and award-winning author, has written extensively about his experience as a gay Indian American. He has also written in the Washington Post and New York Times about Indian government policies and during the interview discussed Section 377 of the Indian penal code, reinstated by the Indian Supreme Court in 2013, which criminalizes homosexual conduct.

Suri shared his thoughts on PRI about what the implications of the U.S. ruling could mean for other nations around the world, including India. “They are bound to really look at what the US is doing,” Suri says. “It’s one of the largest countries in the world and it’s really putting its seal on this, saying marriage equality is here to stay.”

He added the American milestone is an important one as the worldwide conversations surrounding same-sex marriage continue. “There’s back and forth. And I think we’re going to see that in other parts of the world as well.” To listen to the complete interview that aired on PRI, click here.