Rachel Levy (born 1968) is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

blogger A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

. She currently serves as the inaugural Executive Director of the North Carolina State University Data Science Academy. She was a 2020-21 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, serving in the United States Senate and sponsored by the American Mathematical Society. From 2018-2020 she served as deputy executive director of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

(2018-2020). As a faculty member at Harvey Mudd College from 2007-2019 her research was in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

, including the mathematical modeling of

thin film A thin film is a layer of materials ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many ...

s, and the applications of

fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasma (physics), plasmas) and the forces on them. Originally applied to water (hydromechanics), it found applications in a wide range of discipl ...

to biology. This work was funded by The

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Research Corporation Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) is an organization in the United States devoted to the advancement of science, funding research projects in the physical sciences. Since 1912, Research Corporation for Science Advancement has id ...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

, and US

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

. She now focuses on

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

, and undergraduate mathematics research. She served as vice president for education of the

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...

(SIAM), and as editor-in-chief of ''SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO)'', an online publication of SIAM for undergraduate research in applied mathematics. She currently serves on the following advisory boards: * National Academies Roundtable on Data Science Postsecondary Education * Charles A. Dana Center Launch Years Consensus Panel * Education Advisory Board of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) * Mathematics Advisory Group (MAG) of Transforming Postsecondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE) She was a co-founder of the BIG Math Network and the Math Modeling Hub. She coined the acronym VITAL for faculty who are visitors, instructors, TAs, adjuncts and lecturers.

Education and career

Levy did her undergraduate studies at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, completing a

double major Joint degrees are academic qualifications awarded through integrated curricula often jointly coordinated and delivered by multiple higher education institutions, sometimes across different countries. Graduates may receive a single qualification ...

in English and Mathematics in 1989. She then earned a master's degree in Educational Media and Instructional Design in 1996 from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

, another master's degree in applied mathematics from

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

, and a PhD in 2005 from North Carolina State University. Her dissertation, ''Partial differential equations of thin liquid films: analysis and numerical simulation'', was supervised by Michael Shearer. She taught mathematics to secondary school and beginning college students from the time she was an undergraduate until her return to graduate school. After postdoctoral research at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, she joined the Harvey Mudd College faculty from 2007 to 2019. At Harvey Mudd College, she was promoted to Professor of Mathematics and served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development. She was the Iris and Howard Critchell Assistant Professor from 2011 to 2012.

Contributions and publications

Levy co-authored Math Modelling: Computing and Communicating, a practical handbook for high school students with experience with computation and an interest in math modelling. (

, 2018) With Richard Laugesen and Fadil Santosa, Levy is the author of a book for mathematical scientists seeking work, ''BIG Jobs Guide: business, industry, and government careers for mathematical scientists, statisticians, and operations researchers'' (

, 2018) She is the lead author of the early grade section of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Mathematical Modeling Education (GAIMME) Report (

and Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP, 2018) With Michael Shearer, Levy is the author of a textbook on

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to ho ...

s, ''Partial Differential Equations: An Introduction to Theory and Applications'' (Princeton University Press, 2015). Levy's research in applied mathematics has included work on

surfactant Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, a liquid and a gas, or a liquid and a solid. The word ''surfactant'' is a Blend word, blend of "surface-active agent", coined in ...

s, miniature robotic

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s, and

flukeprint In marine biology, a flukeprint is a patch of calm water on the surface of the ocean, formed by the passing of a whale. Flukeprints may also be named by the word for them in the Inupiaq language, qala. As with other forms of animal tracks, fluke ...

s, the tracks left by

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

s on the surface of the ocean. She has also studied the use of

flipped classroom A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning. It aims to increase student engagement and learning by having pupils complete readings at home, and work on live problem-solving during class time. This pedagogical ...

s in undergraduate education. She created a blog, Grandma Got STEM, about earlier generations of women in

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

and currently blogs fo
MAA MathValues

Awards and honors

SIAM Fellow The SIAM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognizes outstanding members of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The goal of the program is to: *honor SIAM members who are recognized by their peers as distinguishe ...

in the 2021 class of fellows, "for leadership in applied mathematics education, especially in mathematical modeling, across the entire educational spectrum". * HMC Leadership Award 2016 Outstanding Faculty Member, April 2016] . *

Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2013 * Fulbright Specialist Roster, 2015–present. * Iris and Howard Critchell Chair, Harvey Mudd College, 2011-12. * Avery Professor, Claremont Graduate University, Spring 2011. * Project NExT Fellow, American Institute of Mathematics, 2007. * Microsoft Future Professors Fellowship, 2003-04.

Writing recognition

* NCTM Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award, ML Hernández, R Levy, MD Felton-Koestler and R Zbiek, “Modeling in the High School Curriculum,” Mathematics Teacher, vol. 110, no. 5, Dec 2016/Jan 2017. * MAA Teaching Tidbits, 2016-17 Most Read Blogpost,“5 Ways to Respond when Students Respond with Incorrect Answers.” * The Best Writing on Mathematics 2016, Featured article, “Industrial Mathematics Inspires Mathematical Modeling Tasks with High Cognitive Demand” from Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics, 2016. * American Scientist Macroscope Blog, Most Read Blogpost, 2015 and 2016, “5 Reasons to teach Mathematical Modeling” * SIAM Student Paper Prize, "Kinetics and Nucleation for Driven Thin Film Flow," 2005.

References

External links