I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Utah. My research interests lie in mathematical biology, modeling environmental change, and dynamical systems.
My undergraduate work was in Environmental Studies and Economics. After graduating, I worked as a teaching and research assistant in Environmental Economics. The more I worked in this field, the more I became interested in the mathematics behind the economic theory. Prior to starting graduate school, I attended a post-baccalaureate program for women in mathematics at Smith College where I was introduced to applications of dynamical systems in biology. In addition to my research interests, I am passionate about teaching. My teaching interests include making math accessible, incorporating active learning, and creating inclusive learning communities.I am interested in utilizing mathematical modeling to understand how organisms adapt to environmental change. My doctoral work with Fred Adler has focused on the development of mechanistic models to explore the eco-evolutionary dynamics of cooperation and phenotypic plasticity within a population under temporally varying environmental conditions.
Phenotypic plasticity is characterized by an organism's ability to turn on or off specific genes in response to changes in the environment. Utilizing yeast as a model system, I have explored the existence of evolutionarily stable switching strategies between different phenotypes. I am currently extending this work to investigate how phenotypic heterogeneity and plasticity in cancer cells may affect treatment strategies.At the University of Utah, I have had the opportunity to work with students as both a lab instructor and as the instructor of record for a variety of courses. As a lab instructor, I constructed weekly lab assignments comprised of problems related to real-world applications and facilitated group work. As the instructor of record, my responsibilities included lecture, constructing active and inquiry-based learning activities, writing quizzes and exams, grading, and facilitating in-class group work.
For the 2018-2019 academic year, I am serving as a teaching peer mentor. As a teaching peer mentor, I meet with graduate student instructors to address teaching questions and concerns, conduct in-class observations, and organize monthly teaching workshops. The topics of the monthly workshops have included establishing an inclusive classroom and incorporating active learning.I am committed to supporting diversity and inclusivity in mathematics.
For four summers, I served as a mathematics teaching assistant for ACCESS, a program for incoming women undergraduates interested in majoring in STEM at the University of Utah. As part of the program, I prepared and delivered lectures on public key cryptography, and facilitated coding of secret messages and an ACCESS cryptocurrency market. We also discussed different types of research and employment opportunities in mathematics.
As a TGLL NSF GK-12, fellow I collaborated with middle school teachers and an interdisciplinary team of graduate students to develop curriculum that supported inquiry-based learning around environmental themes. Each week, I worked with middle school students on activities designed to help them make connections between math and science, and see the relevance of mathematics in their everyday lives as well as the possibility of a career in STEM. I also mentored and judged science fair projects, and organized and chaperoned interdisciplary field trips.
LCB 317
terry "at" math "dot" utah "dot" edu