This winter should be … well, let’s just say interesting for Betsy Stovall.
Stovall has joined the Department of Mathematics as an assistant professor after living in either Georgia or California for her entire life. Stovall, who was hired using funding from the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, comes to the University of Wisconsin-Madison after three years as an associate adjunct professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed her undergraduate studies at Emory University in Atlanta and obtained her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Welcome, Betsy! How did you wind up studying mathematics?
I originally planned to major in political science, but I found it too difficult to put aside my mathematics homework to keep up with my political science readings, so I majored in math instead.
Tell us about your research.
Broadly speaking, my field is analysis, and many of the things I study are very closely connected to the mathematics covered in multivariable calculus. More specifically, I study partial differential equations and also integrals along curves (think of a circle in the plane or a slinky in space) and surfaces (think of the surface of a globe).
Why are you excited about being at UW-Madison?
Many of my new colleagues in the math department are people whose work I have admired for years, and I am very excited about having the opportunity to work with them. Additionally, I am very excited about teaching and working with students from all levels at the university.
What courses do you teach?
In the fall I am teaching Math 340, Elementary Matrix and Linear Algebra, and in the spring I will be teaching Math 521, Analysis I.
What can students expect in the classroom?
My teaching approach is a fairly traditional lecture format, but I enjoy and encourage participation from the students in my classes.