2019 and 2020 Updates
Josh Brown Kramer (BS ’01, Ph.D. ’07), an applied mathematician at Lincoln-based Ocuvera has set up a website that allows people to upload an image of themselves and zombify it for free. Makemeazombie.com uses StyleGAN2, a set of machine-learning frameworks that allows computers to analyze photos and recreate the facial features of humans. Brown Kramer was able to set up his own program to take a photo of a human and turn it into a zombie with eerie similarities. For the site, Brown Kramer hand-filtered more than 300 images of zombie makeup and masks from Pinterest and Google, curating the data so images put through the program would come out crisp and quite zombie-like. Read more in the Lincoln Journal Star at: https://tinyurl.com/yxemkb5w.
Courtney Gibbons (Ph.D. ’13), associate professor of mathematics at Hamilton College, volunteered to mentor Clemson’s COURAGE REU (organized by Sean Sather-Wagstaff, who was a postdoc at UNL), since so many REUs were canceled. Her team worked on a combinatorial commutative algebra problem, and together they got some nice results about nearly complete intersections. She also has taken advantage of Zoom to invite speakers to her algebra senior seminar. Gibbons said she hopes that the trend of virtual visits and community-building continues even when teaching goes back to “normal.” She is the chair of the AWM’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, and will be rotating off in January. The P and A Committee continues to assemble a resources page for COVID-19, https://awm-math.org/covid-19/, and welcomes community input. Gibbons also participated in Talk Math With Your Friends, a weekly virtual colloquium, on Oct. 8. She presented “The real friends are the Betti numbers we calculated along the way.”
Johnny Henderson (Ph.D. ’81) and Rodica Luca (of the University if Iasi, Romania) were the recipients in December 2018 of the Romanian Academy “Spiru Haret Award” for their monograph “Boundary Value Problems for Systems of Differential, Difference and Fractional Equations: Positive Solutions” (published by Elsevier, copyright 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/C2014-0-04797-1).
Brian Johnson (Ph.D., ’12) became the interim director of the Whitaker Center for STEM Education at Florida Gulf Coast University in August 2019.
Anisah Nu’Man (Ph.D., ’15) is now an assistant professor of mathematics at Spelman College. She is returning to her undergraduate alma mater.
Mark Scheidies (BS, ’76) of Longmont, Colorado, died at age 65 on April 30, 2020, surrounded by his family after being paralyzed in a fall a few days earlier. He was born in Minden, Nebraska, on Aug. 19, 1954, and raised on a nearby farm. Mark graduated co-valedictorian from Minden High School in 1972, and received a full Regents Scholarship to the University of Nebraska where he graduated in 1976 with degrees in math, physics, and computer science. There, he met his wife, Jennifer Marcy, and they married in 1976. Mark earned an expert ranking in tournament chess and made it into the “Jeopardy!” contestant pool six times. In 2013, he walked every street in Longmont. It took 1.5 million steps, but he met his goal and chronicled every mile on http://www.longmontstreetwalker.com.
Drew Wilkerson (MS, ’10) accepted a position as associate dean of Academic Affairs at Jefferson Community and Technical College, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2010. He will oversee dual credit and other academic initiatives. Drew jointly holds an appointment as associate professor at the college.
William Wolesensky (Ph.D., ’02) was the 2020 recipient of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award from the University of Texas system. Wolesensky started as faculty at The University of Texas in the fall of 2012. While at UT Austin, Wolesensky has taught a wide range of undergraduate math courses and served on several committees. Highlights of his work at UT Austin include serving as the calculus coordinator; working with Dr. Lorenzo Sadun to create and develop the courses Differential and Integral Calculus for Sciences and Differential and Integral Calculus for Business and working with Dr. Michael Starbird on the Effective Thinking Calculus Project. He has received institutional grants from UT Austin to increase quantitative reasoning opportunities in calculus as well as introduce experiential learning components into several calculus courses. He enjoys gardening and spending time with his family and four dogs.
2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 Updates
Dan Augustyn (BS '99) is using his experience in mathematics to draft future NFL players. Of the 796 names recognized by the NFL Players Association as active agents, he is the only one certified in the state of Nebraska. Augustyn is an attorney and owns Augustyn Law Office in Lincoln. His admiration and love for the game started with his grandfather who played football at Northern Colorado and later went on to referee and coach in small Nebraska and Kansas towns. Read more in the April 28, 2017, Lincoln Journal Star article: https://tinyurl.com/y8ygfcmt. Dan lives in Lincoln with his wife, Lindsay, and they have two young sons who keep the family busy with their love for soccer. Augustyn earned his juris doctor from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2003 and practices personal injury, trademark and copyright law. He ran his own firm from 2005 to 2008. Augustyn is an avid bridge player and college football fan.
Eric Eager (Ph.D. '12) provides analytical insights to all 32 NFL teams and over 40 college football clients in his position as a data scientist for Pro Football Focus. Eager was a professor for six years before joining PFF in July 2018.
Courtney Gibbons (Ph.D. ’13) earned the John R. Hatch Class of 1925 Excellence in Teaching Award from Hamilton College, N.Y., in 2015 where she is an assistant professor of mathematics. The award is given to a tenure-track faculty member who has demonstrated superior teaching, high-quality scholarly research and significant and positive impact on students.
Matt James (MAT ’13) got married on June 2, 2018. James is a math teacher at Lincoln Southwest High School, and his wife, Bridgette, is a nurse in a heart cath lab.
Kurt Meyer (BS ’88) went on to earn his master’s degree in Astronautics from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Colorado (’97.) He has worked as an aerospace engineer for the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, and provided technical support for the U.S. Air Force Space Program. He sustained a traumatic brain injury while mountain biking in Colorado in 1998, which prompted him to move back to Nebraska and re-enroll in the teachers’ college. He has a broad background in tutoring mathematics and physics. After attaining his teaching certificate, he spent five years at LPS tutoring math and physics to highly gifted elementary and middle school students. He worked for six months as an online tutor for tutor.com, and has also tutored college students face-to-face. He lives near his parents’ farm in Avoca, but makes it to Lincoln almost once a week. He stays involved at the University by participating in the German Speaking Table and tutoring ROTC students.
Amy Parrott (Ph.D. ’09) is the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Wisconsin Section of the Mathematical Association of America. She received the award in April for her great success in teaching mathematics. She is currently teaching mathematics courses to future elementary teachers and middle-school specialists at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She is described by her peers as “a dedicated teacher who is deeply interested in the preparation of our future teachers.” One of her favorite things about teaching is helping students overcome any fears they have about math; she considers it a great success when any of her students can tell her that they learned to love math because of her class. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y7vrhbax
Tim Rolling (BS, ’16) is in his third year as a graduate student and teaching assistant at Purdue University. His research area is probability theory.
John Sweeney (BS '95) became a mathematics teacher at Lincoln Lutheran High School in Nebraska in 2015. John married Paige Lindstedt on July 16, 2011, at Tower Hall in Malcolm, Neb. Paige is a 1995 UNMC-Kearney College of Nursing graduate with a certification in Emergency Nursing and works at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln. John earned his MA in Education (Curriculum and Instruction) from Concordia University Irvine in 2004.
Kamara Wright (BA ’12) was hired into the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) as a part of the Engineer & Scientist Development Program (ESDP). She currently lives with her fiancé in Maryland, and the two got married in June 2016.
2013 and 2014 Updates
Scott Blunk (MA ’82) is a Senior Supervisor Engineer at BAE Systems doing research on the mixed integer program. Blunk is married with two daughters, one who attends UNL as an industrial engineering major and the other attends Papillion-La Vista South High School.
William Bosch (Ph.D. ’70) is retired from the University of Northern Colorado and now lives in Spearfish, S.D., with his wife, Peggy. He hangs out at the Black Hills State University mathematics department and volunteers his time tutoring students, in between fishing trips. His email address is wbosch@spe.midco.net and he would like to hear from former graduate student friends from the 1965-71 era.
John Bullock (MA ’04) is Senior Staff Actuary in fixed and income annuity valuation at Ameriprise Financial. He lives in Farmington, Minn., with his wife, Amy, and two kids, Ainsley and William. He has worked at Ameriprise since graduating from UNL. He received ASA (Associate in the Society of Actuaries) in 2008, MAAA (Member of the American Academy of Actuaries) in 2009 and CERA (Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst) in 2011. Bullock also has enjoyed refereeing high school basketball since 2007.
April Christensen (BS ’09) earned her M.D. from Vanderbilt in 2013. She is now an internal medicine intern at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Andrew Clements (BS ’06) is a life actuary at Lincoln Financial Group. He has been married to his wife, Brooke, for five years, and started working at Lincoln Financial Group after graduation. He obtained the Fellowship of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) credential. His hobbies include playing competitive bridge and running.
Lisa Davis (BS ’99) went on to her earn her MS in industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan in 2004 and her MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2006. She now works at the Office of the Secretary of Defense as an Operations Research Analyst. She provides independent analysis on topics of interest to the Secretary of Defense. She previously worked at IBM as a supply chain strategy consultant. Davis is married to Tim and has a daughter, Amelia, born in May 2012.
Greg Erdmann (MA ’71) is retired from Agilent Technologies, where he was an engineering consulting manager on semiconducters. Having also earned an MBA, Erdmann was a mathematician for five years with the US Navy, then spent 14 years as an applications engineer or in sales and marketing for Hewlett Packard, and 22 years at Agilent Technologies. His current hobbies are golf, running half marathons, choral singing, and teaching adult Sunday school classes.
Gopi Goda (BS ’00) earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2007 in economics. She worked as an actuarial associate at Northwestern Mutual before attending graduate school at Stanford. After graduate school, she spent two years as a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Harvard University before returning to Stanford as a researcher at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. She and her husband, Sunil, welcomed their first son, Milan, in July 2012.
Gary Gruenhage (BS ’69) is a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Auburn University, after having earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis, in 1973. His research area is topology. He recently received an award from Auburn and was asked to give a talk to a general audience about his research. The Auburn Graduate School posted the talk on YouTube.
Karl Hinman (MS ’77) is retired from Raytheon as a systems engineer. He met his wife, Judy (Serbousek), when they had neighboring offices in Oldfather Hall as TA’s in 1976. They now live in Richardson, Texas, where they have both had long careers, starting at Texas Instruments, Judy moving to E-Systems, and then Raytheon buying out both defense departments. Their backgrounds gained at UNL in the math and computer science departments were the starting key to both of their long and successful careers.
Nick Homan (BS ’92) went on to earn a Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is now a captain in the U.S. Navy, in which he has served for 30 years.
Matthew Kutscher (BSEd ’98, MA ’04, Ph.D. ’08) is now an Assistant Professor in Secondary Education at Doane College in Nebraska, after earning his BS in math education, MA in curriculum and instruction and Ph.D. in educational studies, all from UNL.
Corey Maley (BS ’05) earned his master’s degree in philosophy in 2010 from Princeton University and will earn his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2014. He is an assistant professor in philosophy at the University of Kansas.
Mark Mills (BS ’91) has taught mathematics at Central College in Pella, Iowa, since 1999. He earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. at Iowa State University. He was promoted to Professor of Mathematics at Central College in Fall 2013. In 2009, Mark started an actuarial science major, and in Summer 2012 he took (and passed!) actuarial Exam P. He will use his sabbatical in Spring 2014 to study for actuarial Exam FM. Mark took up running three years ago, running a lot of 5K races over the past three years. He ran his first 10K and half-marathon this past fall. Mark and his wife, Ann, have two children, and they love living in the small Dutch community that is Pella, Iowa.
Katy Nelson (BS ’05) is now a Wilderness Ranger and Idaho Wolverine Field Technician in the United States Forest Service and Round River Conservation. Katy spends more time outside than inside, both working and playing. She said she is lucky that both of her jobs (backcountry ranger and wolverine study tech) take her to remote places and allow her to study perhaps one of the most amazing animals on the planet, the wolverine. She may not walk a traditional or ‘normal’ life path since she graduated from UNL, but her background in mathematics gives her the problem solving skills she needs to navigate the out-of-the-ordinary path she follows.
Ed Wiley (BA ’94) completed a Master of Arts from UNL in educational psychology in 1996, the Stanford Statistics program in 2000, and the Stanford Psychological Studies in Education program in 2001. Ed now works for Seagate Technology as the Director of Big Data Analytics, doing research in statistics and predictive analytics. Ed was formerly on the faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he chaired the Research and Evaluation Methodology program.
2011 and 2012 Updates
George Bayer (BS '69) is a CPA and recently moved to North Platte, Neb. He earned his master’s degree in accounting in 1973. George currently assists individuals with issues concerning HUD funds.
John Boyer (BS '69) is retiring from Kansas State University, where he is a Professor of Statistics and the former head of the Dept of Statistics. Boyer was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1995 and was a recipient of the ASA Founders' Award in 2006. Boyer earned his MS ('72) and Ph.D. ('76) from Michigan State University in Statistics.
David Brown (Ph.D. '71, MS '67) is retired from Boeing Aircraft. He would like to get in contact with other graduate students from 1965-71, so please submit your news online. Brown, whose Ph.D. was in Commutative Rings, earned his B.S. in Mathematics from North Texas State University in 1964.
Brian Buhrman (MS '76, BS '70) is now retired after teaching mathematics for 38 years, including more than 30 years at Iowa Western Community College. He has good memories of his time at UNL, everything from a modern algebra class by John Meakin with no book, just his class notes, to playing on an intramural basketball team with Jim Lewis.
Dan Dvorak (BS ’04) earned his juris doctor from the University of Iowa and is now an associate attorney at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP in Minneapolis.
Daniel Edwards (BS '89) is a Weather Officer for the United States Air Force and was promoted to Colonel in December 2010. Edwards earned his M.S. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University in 1997.
Taylor Faulkner (BS ’02) earned his MBA from Rice University in 2008 and now works for ExxonMobil as a controller.
Johnny Henderson (Ph.D. ’81) is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Baylor University, since 2002, in the research area of differential equations. He previously held positions at the University of Missouri-Rolla (1981-84) and Auburn University (1984-02). He recently was selected for membership in the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society.
Darren Holley (Ph.D. '97) is a mathematics teacher at Omaha North High School and has taught at the school for 29 years. In 2011, he won a $10,000 Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award.
Drew Proud (BS ’12) now lives in Boston, working as a fixed income analyst at Advantage Data.
Ryan Sanford (MS '03) is in the 333d Fighter Squadron and is an Evaluator Pilot in the F-15E, teaching others to fly the Strike Eagle. Sanford has been accepted in the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB where he will fly up to 35 aircraft and will earn an MS in Flight Test Engineering. Ryan and his wife, Erica, have three children.
Mohsin Soliman (BS '99) is a General Surgeon specializing in Minimally Invasive (Laparoscopic) Surgery for St. Joseph's Hospital/Carondelet Surgical Associates in Kansas City. Soliman earned his M.D. from UNMC in 2005 and was a surgical research fellow at Harvard Medical School from 1999-2001. He is married to Sara (Kuhn) Soliman, RN, BSN. They are die-hard Husker football fans and enjoy spending time with their bulldog, Dozer.
Shel Swenson (BS ’01) earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from The University of Texas at Austin in 2009. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she works with Christine Heitsch and her students on problems in mathematical and computational biology. Specifically, she is interested in using discrete mathematics to help answer questions in molecular biology. Her Ph.D. and initial postdoctoral work, both with Tandy Warnow at The University of Texas at Austin, focused on designing methods for estimating large-scale evolutionary histories, while her current focus is on RNA secondary structure prediction. When she’s not doing research or advising students, she is usually dancing. She is a former member of Austin Classical Ballet and current member of D’AIR Aerial Dance Theater Company in Atlanta.
Ellen Veomett (BS ’02), an assistant professor of mathematics at St. Mary’s College in California, has written an article in the October 2012 issue of Notices of the AMS about her experience as an IMMERSE early-career faculty member at UNL in the summer of 2010, while she was teaching at Cal State University East Bay in Hayward, Calif. She describes how she took her experience teaching a summer IMMERSE course and has adapted it into a “regular” course at her own institution. Read the AMS article at: http://www.ams.org/notices/201209/rtx120901237p.pdf or go to math.unl.edu/friends for a full story about Veomett and IMMERSE.
Daniel Williams (BS ’08) is a graduate student at the University of Rochester, The Institute of Optics, earning a master’s degree in technical entrepreneurship and management.
Barbara Zach ('01) is Executive Director of Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra. She joined the orchestra staff in 2001 as Operations/Personnel Manager & Music Librarian, taking responsibility for all details of concert production, and was appointed executive director in 2005. She secured major multi-year underwriting to allow the Orchestra to move to a new home in the Lied Center for Performing Arts. In 2007, the League of American Orchestras invited Barbara Zach to be one of twelve national participants in the inaugural class of the two-year long Executive Leadership Program. Zach serves as chairman of the Downtown Rotary music committee and is the Vice President of Membership for Nebraskans for the Arts. She was a recipient of the Lincoln Business Journal's "40 Under 40" award, a finalist for Lincoln's Non-Profit Executive of the Year Award, and received the Governor's Award for Emerging Leader in 2010. Zach graduated from UNL with dual degrees in mathematics and piano performance.
2010 Updates
Daniel Brox (BA '97) is a management consultant/associate principal with ZS Associates in Princeton, N.J. For the past 11 years, Brox has worked with and for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, helping them improve their sales and marketing effectiveness. Brox is married and has two sons, and enjoys running, hiking, swimming and watching Nebraska football.
Karna Bryan (BS '94) is a Senior Scientist at the NATO Undersea Research Center in La Spezia, Italy, where she has worked for more than 10 years. She is currently Project Leader of the Maritime Situational Awareness project, which aims to provide better knowledge of maritime shipping activities to increase global security. Bryan holds a M.A. in Statistics from Yale University. Bryan lives in Sarzana, Italy, with her husband, Gianfranco, and three sons, Dario, Giordano and Marco. She is fluent in Italian but likes to connect with her American side by watching original language TV and films.
Bobbi Buchholz (MS '04, Ph.D. '07) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Hastings College in Hastings. She enjoys spending her free time with her husband, Jim, and two daughters (Kaylee, 4, and Zoe, 2).
Brad Carlin (BS '85) is the Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Minnesota, where he joined the faculty in 1991. Carlin earned his Ph.D. in statistics at the University of Connecticut and completed a postdoctoral position at Carnegie Mellon. Brad and his wife, Caroline (see following), have three sons, ages 18, 16 and 12.
Caroline (Tuttle) Carlin (BS '85) is a Professor in Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota, where she focuses on modeling consumer choice, particularly in the health care and child care environments. After completing a Fellowship in the Society of Actuaries, Carlin worked for Target Corporation (then Dayton Hudson Corporation) in 1996 and became its benefits director. She left Target in 2001 and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Health Services Research from Minnesota in 2006.
Teena Carroll (MS '02) is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. Her husband, Dave, is continuing the music studies he began at UNL and is ultimately planning on receiving certification to teach both high school math and music. They have a daughter named Lucy (2). whose favorite number is "eleventeen."
Megan (Sheets) Drayton (BS '01, MA '03) is a Strategic Research Analyst at Fiserv in Lincoln. Since 2009, she has worked for the CIO to assist in the company's development of long-term strategies. In 2005, she founded eChef, a recipe software company that expanded to include a desktop tool and the eChef Share online repository. Drayton is married with two sons, and enjoys photography and home remodeling projects.
Mary (Else) Hegemann (BS '96) works for Wakely Consulting Group as the Senior Consulting Actuary in Denver, where she specializes in consulting on health care issues. Currently, she is working with several states on initiatives involving health care reform. Hegemann and her husband, Greg (they met the first day of college in Honors Calculus class), have two children, Shannon and Austin. She remains involved with the university through Cather Circle.
Matt Koetz (Ph.D. '05) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. He has been appointed to the Seaway NExT Advisory Committee and enjoys trying to keep up with his two kids (Julia, 4, and Isaac, 2).
Graham Leuschke (Ph.D. '00) is an Associate Professor in the Mathematics Department at Syracuse University. He still enjoys smashing a bottle with his Ph.D. adviser, Roger Wiegand, and his academic brethren and sistren. This year he hopes the whole family (wife Moira and son Conor, 3) will join in the fun.
Mike McQuistan (BS '99) works for the Department of Defense and lives in Maryland. McQuistan received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005. McQuistan enjoys playing bridge and various sports.
W. Frank Moore (MS '04, Ph.D. '08) is an H.C. Wang Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Cornell University. He also has taken a tenure-track position at Wake Forest University to begin in Fall 2011. He enjoys playing board games with his wonderful wife, Elizabeth, and proving theorems.
Joyce Yen (BS '95) is the Program/Research Manager for the ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she joined the staff as an assistant professor in industrial engineering in 2000. Yen has been PI or co-PI on eight proposals that have brought more than $2.5 million in funding. She received her M.S. ('99) and Ph.D. ('01) in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two small children.