Applied Mathematics News

Dr. Mark Branson recently attended the Association for Women Mathematicians Hill Day. He spent the day lobbying for support for women in STEM. He spoke with a staffer in Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings’ office, as well as senators & representatives from other states.

Dr. Kerry Spencer, our Science Writing faculty member, and her research assistants Morgan LaMonica and Takneeah Cook recently visited New York City to present their research results to publishers, editors, book marketers, and agents. They collected data on 475 Young Adult novels and used it to estimate the effect of book marketing and book content on sales. More than 250 characteristics were recorded for each book, ranging from things like the size of the author advance and whether or not the book won awards, to the type of plot structure and the gender of the protagonist. Bestselling books are marketed, not written, and a minimum threshold of marketing must be met before a book has a viable chance to “break out.”

Several Stevenson Applied Mathematics majors also attended the JMM including Billy Heidel (’20), Joshua Lang (’21), and Lindsey Weishaar (’19, second picture above). Billy presented a poster in the Undergraduate poster session based on his research with math faculty member, Dr. Ben Wilson (top picture). His poster was titled To Spin or Not to Spin: Simulating Wheel of Fortune in Python​. Another presenter in the poster session was Samantha Bothwell, the daughter of Stevenson adjunct math professor Cynthia Bothwell (3rd picture). A math major at Colorado State University, Samantha’s poster was titled Effects of Maternal Complications ​on Circulating Protein Profiles in Pre Term Infants.