Alex McDonough

Research Overview:

I study algebraic, geometric, topological, and dynamical combinatorics. A few of my favorite topics are chip-firing, matroid theory, and discrete geometry. More generally, I tend to enjoy any project where I can play around with concrete examples to search for hidden structure. Thankfully, these kinds of projects are plentiful in combinatorics!

When doing research, I like to seek a compelling story to help explain a curious phenomenon. When a result feels neither obvious nor arbitrary, I usually take that as a sign that there is more to explore. 

For particularly intriguing phenomena, I find it helpful both for presentations and my own understanding to design animations about the material. The first research animation I made is below, and you can find others in the visuals tab. 

Personal

• I am married to the amazing statstician Julia Schedler!

• One of my favorite hobbies is playing, collecting, and reading about board games. A well written board game instruction manual has many of the same characteristics as a well written research paper (such as clear logic, judicious structure, and plenty of examples). I feel that learning new games has been great practice for learning new mathematics, and teaching rules to others has been great practice for lecturing!

• I also love participating in rec league/ intramural sports whenever I can, especially basketball!