About Me:

Welcome! My name is Mallory Gaspard, and I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Leonard Lab and Levin Lab at Princeton University, mentored by Professor Naomi Ehrich Leonard, and Professor Simon Levin. As an applied mathematician, I am broadly inspired by developing mathematical approaches to problems involving decision-making and optimal control under uncertainty, particularly those arising in robotic, ecological, and sociological contexts. My current research efforts fall into one of two main thrusts:

1. Mathematically modeling and understanding decision-making processes in aesthetic spaces (e.g., art museums and galleries). 

2. Optimal control under uncertainty for infectious disease management.

Prior to starting my postdoc at Princeton, I completed my Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in June 2025 at Cornell University. During my time at Cornell, I was advised by Alex Vladimirsky. I was fortunate to be an NDSEG Fellow (Fellowship Tenure: 2020-2023) and to have been supported by an NSF RTG grant (Spring 2024). My Ph.D. thesis work focused on the development of optimal control frameworks which could be applied in situations characterized by transitional uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty in the system's next state after initiating a transition from the current state) or temporal uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty in the length of the planning horizon). These approaches were rooted in dynamic programming, and were applied to problems in transportation, autonomous vehicle routing, and biology. Please see this page for a copy of my Ph.D. thesis. In December 2018, I completed my Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Applied Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. 

In addition to my primary research projects at Princeton, I am also honored to be a part of the 2025-2026 class of Future Values Fellows in Princeton's University Center for Human Values. 

If you'd like to get in touch, don't hesitate to reach out (mallory.gaspard(at)princeton.edu)!