The BA program culminates in the writing of a Senior Thesis.
Students select a topic related to their concentration and submit their thesis proposal
in the spring of their junior year. Under the regular guidance of faculty advisors
and evaluators, students continue to research, write, and develop the study over the
course of their senior year. The result is a significant piece of research and an
established skill set that will enable independent research studies going forward.
It's your chance to research what interests you. Write. Reflect. Discover. The faculty is here to support you as you pursue your passions.
Past theses in mathematics include:
- Ethan Ackelsberg, "Competitive Coloring: A Structural Approach" (2016)
- Matthew Meyer, "Another Golden Braid: An Exploration of Formal Systems, Absurdism, Logical Assumption,
and What We Learn From Them" (2016)
- Mallie Prytherch, "The Application of Mathematical and Theoretical Methods to the Chinese Housing Market:
A Case Study" (2016)
- Nathan Sadowsky, "Two Accounts of History: A Phylogenetic Approach to Reconstructing Gene Trees and
Species Trees; or Ninety-Five Theses on Species: A Tree-tise" (2016)
- Melissa Sherman-Bennett, "On Groups and Their Graphs" (2016)
- Gemma Gearhart, "The Algebra of Rubik's Cube" (2014)
- Benjamin Palmer, "Disaster: A Network Analysis of When Engineering Goes Wrong" (2014)
- Miriam Melnick, "An iOS Library for Viewing Complex 3D Models" (2013)
- Thomas Meyer, "Using a Massively Parallel Computer Architecture to Model the Ocean's Biological Pump" (2013)
- Samuel J. Ferguson, "Minimal Surfaces with Harmonic Maps: Soap Bubbles with Imaginary Numbers" (2010)
- Maria Terres, "Invading Lake Mansfield Forest: A Study of Local Invasive Plants" (2008)
- Ashley Christensen, "Geometrical Study of the Quintic Equation" (2004)
- Matthew Todd Farrell, "Fractal Reflections: the Theory of Theta-Schottky Groups and their Fractal Dimensions" (2004)
- Benjamin M. Kalish, "Introduction to Ray Tracing" (2002)
- Benjamin T. Webster, "On Linearly Equivalent Actions and their Applications" (2002)
- Robert Ji Wai Young, "Strategies for Jotto" (2002)
- Jeffrey Legge, "Improving the Accuracy of Vertex Labeling Algorithms" (2001)
- Sara P. Smollett, "Alice in Mathland: A Mathematical Fantasy" (2000)
- Zoe Sherman, "A Mere Formality: Axiomatic Systems in Counterpoint and Geometry" (1999)
Melissa Sherman Bennett '16
Math Thesis Poster
Ethan Acklesberg '16
Math Thesis Poster
Nathan Sadowsky '16
Math Thesis Poster
Alumni Spotlight
Dmitry Kondrashov (entering class of ‘92, BA ‘96), Senior Lecturer at the University
of Chicago, recently published the textbook Quantifying Life: A Symbiosis of Computation, Mathematics, and Biology (The University of Chicago Press, 2016).
Written for an interdisciplinary course taught at the University of Chicago, the text
quickly introduces biology majors to advanced techniques in mathematics and statistics
that are relevant for modeling and data analysis in biological research. As a lecturer
in the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago, Dmitry
saw the need for Quantifying Life while teaching an introductory course he developed in quantitative modeling for biology.