Mathematics

Levi Angel (class of ‘19) is a mathematics major with a minor in economics. In the summer of 2016, he worked as a Muskie Fellow with Assistant Professor Matt Davis. They collaborated on a research project studying non-transitive dice, which show paradoxical behavior when used to play a simple game. Rather than one die being the best and most likely to roll the highest, these dice are generally strong against some opponents and weak against other. The project explored ways to construct sets of dice that exhibit certain behavior, and the properties of those sets of dice. This led to two papers which have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals (Journal of Combinatorial Designs and Involve: A Journal Of Mathematics).

Leah Buck, Class of 2017, is from Zanesville, Ohio with a major in Mathematics. Buck spent most of her 2015 Summer working on campus with Dr. Richard Daquila, Professor of Mathematics to find a Universal Algebraic Differential Equation. The opportunity to research on campus became available to Buck because of the relationship she’d built with Dr. Daquila – she worked for him grading papers and expressed her interest in “learning the ins and outs of mathematical research.” Buck was also the Class of 2017 Valedictorian.

Megan Duke graduated in May ('14) with a math degree and an AYA teaching licensure. Megan, who hails from Weirton, West Virginia, first heard about Muskingum when she was contacted by the women’s soccer coach. She visited in the spring of her junior year and “fell in love with the campus. I loved the small campus and class sizes with the opportunity to actually get to know your professors. The wonderful financial aid package they offered made the dream of coming to Muskingum a reality.”

Megan was an RA in Kelley Hall. She was also a math tutor in the Student Success Center, a grader for the Math Department, and an office assistant in the Education Department. She was president of Omicron Delta Kappa, the junior/senior leadership honorary, and of Kappa Mu Epsilon, the math honorary. She was also the vice president of Residence Hall Association and a member of the Council for Exceptional Children and CenterBoard.

Last summer, Megan worked as a Muskie Fellow in the Math Department with Dr. Richard Daquila. “After all my research, I wrote an article about my findings that is going to be published in an undergraduate math journal at Rose-Hulman! I also had a chance to present my project and its results at the Ohio section of the Mathematical Association of America fall meeting.”

Jarrod Dalton earned his BS in mathematics, computer science, and business from Muskingum University in 2002 and proceeded to earn a master's degree in applied statistics from the University of Michigan in 2003. In 2013, Jarrod received the Doctoral Excellence Award in Biomedical Sciences from Case Western Reserve University for his 2013 Ph.D. thesis in epidemiology and biostatistics. In nearly seven years as a biostatistician within the Cleveland Clinic Departments of Quantitative Health Sciences and Outcomes Research, Jarrod gained expertise in the design and analysis of clinical trials in the area of perioperative medicine and in conducting observational analyses of large, diverse electronic health data registries. His research is focused on using modern electronic health record technology to better support individualized care, primarily through the use of statistical data mining or machine learning techniques. Under the KL2 program, he is working under the mentorship of Neal Dawson, MD to build and validate clinical decision rules which will recommend a treatment alternative for specific conditions according to patients individual comorbidity profiles using large population health databases. He is also working to develop methodology for modeling abnormally low and/or high treatment outcomes, with applications in clinical and translational medicine, health economics, and personalized care.