Kevin Liu

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Sewanee: The University of the South. My teaching interests span areas of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. I particularly enjoy teaching courses that promote a healthy blend of theory and applications. My research interests are primarily in combinatorics, including connections to algebra, optimization, statistics, and probability. 

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, the Washington Experimental Mathematics Laboratory, and the Washington Directed Reading Program.  During the 2022-2023 academic year, I 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. For the 2023-2024 academic year, I was the Lead Teaching Assistant for the mathematics department, where I worked with Andy Loveless to prepare incoming teaching assistants in the 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 at Vanderbilt, I struggled significantly in my math major, particularly during my sophomore year, and the lowest grade across all of my transcripts will always be in a math course. At the time, I would not have predicted that I would eventually complete a Ph.D. in Mathematics, and I use this experience as a reminder of the inaccuracies of extrapolation and the importance of having supportive figures in one's life.

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.