Kevin Liu

I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Data Sciene at Sewanee: The University of the South. I completed my Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Washington advised by Sara Billey, as well as an M.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Statistics. At UW, I was involved with the Combinatorics and Geometry Seminar, served as a Graduate Student Representative for the UW Mathematics department (where I contributed to removing our written preliminary exams in favor of a writing milestone that better supports the transition into research), and spent my last year there as the Lead Teaching Assistant for the mathematics department.

Prior to attending UW, I completed my B.S. in Secondary Education and Mathematics at Vanderbilt University in 2015, taught high school mathematics at the University School of Nashville from 2015-2018, and completed the Post-Baccalaureate Program for Mathematics at Iowa State University in 2019. While I was an undergraduate, I struggled significantly in my math major. At the time, I would not have predicted that I would eventually complete a Ph.D. in Mathematics, though it is a reminder of the dangers of extrapolation and the importance of having supportive figures. I attribute a large part of eventually attending graduate school to Paul Edelman, who showed me how to appreciate the elegance of mathematics despite its difficulty. 

I am a proud first-generation college and graduate student. Outside of math, I stay active by weightlifting, bouldering, running, hiking, and biking. I also enjoy learning guitar, cooking, and playing board games and video games. During some of my summers as a high school teacher, I worked as a line cook at Fido.