Sarah Minucci
Lee University math graduate Sarah Minucci is currently in the Systems Modeling and Analysis Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she was one of two students to win the Student Media Fellowship competition. This competition was launched by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in collaboration with the American Mathematical Society.
SIAM started a webinar series aimed at graduate students interested in learning about career possibilities outside traditional academic institutions (in business, entrepreneurship, industry, government, nonprofits, etc.). These webinars include live interviews with mathematicians, with each interview conducted by a SIAM-AMS Student Media Fellow.
Each year’s cohort of Fellows is selected through a competition open to all students enrolled in a graduate program in the mathematical sciences in the United States or Canada, and Ms. Minucci was selected as one of this year’s two interviewers.
Ms. Minucci became interested in the program when, at the 2016 SIAM Annual Meeting in Boston, she listened to Susan Sohler Everingham talk about her career as a mathematician at RAND, Inc. This experience changed the way she thought about math and the opportunities possible for her. She then began conducting informational interviews with people she met at conferences or with those whose jobs sounded interesting.
“It’s often unclear what opportunities are available with a math-related degree,” said Ms. Minucci. “My professors at Lee worked hard to expose us to different types of careers by taking us to conferences and developing new classes, and this sparked an interest for me to continue learning about what I could do with math. The webinars produced by the program will be extremely valuable to math students wondering what they can do with their degree, and I’m so excited to be a part of it.”
By broadcasting these interviews, Ms. Minucci wants to encourage participating students that they do not need professional training to seek out their own opportunities to learn about industry, government, and other career paths. Her live webinar can be viewed at https://siam.zoom.us/recording/share/IUi2e_qbA7f6JuvBgYCdvCRmqiMzkEEJRRMTkA8qgxywIumekTziMw.
Ms. Minucci is a fourth-year PhD student from Nashville. Her research is in mathematical biology, focusing on mathematical modeling of the immune response to lung damage due to mechanical ventilation. She graduated from Lee University in 2016 with a double major in math and Spanish, and during her time at Lee she was awarded the Centennial Scholarship and was a Zeno C. Tharp Award nominee.
SIAM is an international community of over 14,000 individual members. Almost 500 academic, manufacturing, research and development, service and consulting organizations, government, and military organizations worldwide are institutional members. SIAM was incorporated in 1952 as a nonprofit organization to convey useful mathematical knowledge to other professionals who could implement mathematical theory for practical, industrial, or scientific use.
AMS, a professional society since 1888, advances research and connects the diverse global mathematical community through publications, meetings and conferences, MathSciNet, professional services, advocacy, and awareness programs.
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For more information about AMS, visit https://www.ams.org/home/page.