Karen Saxe
DeWitt Wallace Professor, Emerita
Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science

I have retired from teaching, and am currently in Washington, DC serving as Director of the Office of Government Relations of the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

I write a blog as part of my new job, all about science policy. And, this is "my" webpage at the AMS.

Students -- if you are interested in an internship or a post-graduation job doing science policy work, check out this list of opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. I see some of the links are broken, so you might need to do a Google search to follow leads!

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I joined the Macalester faculty in 1991 and, for many years, had the privilege to work with fantastic colleagues and amazing students (some of whom I have the good fortune to now work with in DC). I served as MSCS Department Chair 2007-2013, and as Acting Chair for spring 2016. I taught calculus (all levels), real analysis, complex analysis, functional analysis, and interdisciplinary courses on game theory and mathematics in politics. 

I received the DeWitt Wallace chair and gave my inaugural lecture on February 3, 2016. A recording of the full talk, slides for my talk, and my speech are available through these links:

I've been awarded the Mathematical Association of America North Central Section's Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Macalester College Excellence in Teaching Award. I have served as Second Vice President of the MAA (2014-2016), and Editor of the MAA's Anneli Lax New Mathematical Library. I've been a resource in Minnesota on redistricting, consulting with city governments, and served on the Minnesota Citizens' Redistricting Commission, created to draw congressional districts following the 2010 census. I continue this work as a member of Common Cause Minnesota's Redistricting Leadership Circle. On May 8, 2018 I was featured in a webinar on redistricting offered as part of the "Math Frontiers" series offered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

I serve on the Advisory Board for Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math), an initiative sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, aiming to effect constructive change in mathematics education at community colleges, 4-year colleges and research universities.  

On my most recent sabbatical I served as the 2013-2014 AMS/AAAS Science and Technology Policy Congressional Fellow. Here is an interview about my time in Congress, working for Senator Al Franken, and an AMS Notices article about the experience.

Read about A Common Vision for Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences Programs in 2025 -- an NSF-funded project about curriculum and pedagogy for the first two years of college-level education in the mathematical sciences.

Last updated July 2019