NCUMC 2022

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Andrés Vindas Meléndez
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UC Berkeley

Dr. Andrés R. Vindas Meléndez is a queer, chronically-ill, Costa Rican-American mathematician, raised in Lynwood, South East Los Angeles, California. He is a first-generation college graduate and is currently a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellow. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky where he was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and by a National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to Doctorate Fellowship. At the University of Kentucky he was also an affiliated graduate student in the Latin American Studies program and earned a graduate certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino/a Studies. He earned a master’s degree in mathematics at San Francisco State University and completed his undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley where he also minored in Philosophy and Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies. His research interests are in algebraic, enumerative, and geometric combinatorics. Dr. Vindas Meléndez’s teaching, service, mentorship, and outreach is student-centered. He has the opportunity to help guide students to learn abstract mathematics and find their voice while also developing a sense of ownership of their knowledge and mathematical abilities. Dr. Vindas Meléndez strives to create a community in order to build students’ confidence in spite of society’s negative messages and stigma about mathematics. He also aims to build meaningful and empowering experiences with mathematics, while also challenging others to think about the power structures that are present in and outside mathematical spaces.