Cougar Queries is a series profiling BYU employees by asking them questions about their work, interests and life.
BYU employee since: 2019.
My job at BYU... math professor.
I am currently... teaching MATH 290 and 532 in the spring term and working with graduate students.
I'm currently reading... "Master Alvin," which is the last book in Orson Scott Card's series "The Tales of Alvin Maker."
I get most excited about my work when... my students and I are stuck on something we are trying to prove and one of us finally has an idea that leads to a correct, elegant proof. I love seeing how excited they are to tell me when they are the ones who had the breakthrough.
The Cantor middle thirds set first... sparked my interest in math. It is a set that is small in the sense that it has "measure 0," as large as the real numbers in the sense that it is in one-to-one correspondence with them, and has fractional dimension.
My favorite part of teaching... is seeing my students' confidence increase as they take something that was hard for them and conquer it, whether that means solving a hard math problem, or getting past something that causes them anxiety.
The best advice I ever got about teaching... was from my own thesis advisor who used to say he offered "full service advising," by which he meant that he didn't just help us with math, he interacted with us as whole people who sometimes needed math instruction but sometimes needed emotional support, encouragement, and life and career advice.
If I have 30 minutes of free time, you'll find me... walking. I think best when my feet are moving. I even pace around my home.
My go-to comfort food... is toast. One of my nicknames at home is "the toast queen." Although standard toast is great, French toast is one of my very favorite foods.
My fondest memory from my childhood... is a walk I took around my neighborhood alone with my grandpa on the day of my first communion when I was almost eight years old.
