Take a circular hair tie and set it on a table. That’s an “unknot”. Pick it up, cut it, twist it into a knot and then reconnect the cut ends, and now you’ve got the kind of knot that mathematicians study. Follow along as Erika takes us on a brief journey into her thesis focusing on knot theory.
Reed community members can read Erika’s thesis, “Khovanov Homology: Putting Pants on Knots,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Evan Griggs ’22 wrote a thesis in the math department, and talks about his path from community college to the math department at Reed.
Reed community members can read Evan’s thesis, “Cyclic Cones & Non-singular Refinements of Cyclic Fans,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Frank interviews Rowen about a thesis year like no other. Rowen’s thesis experience explored some arguments about the epistemology of mathematics, or, as Rowen puts it, it was “a philosophical argument that used elements of mathematics.” Rowen touches on Gödel’s Theorem, Peano Arithmetic, and related theories.
Reed community members can read Rowen’s thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive, which includes a short preface on the usefulness of epistemic thought in times of great crisis.
Join Seth Paskin ’90 as he interviews interdisciplinary Math/Physics graduate Nate MacFadden in Fall 2019 on his research into just how predictable quantum phenomena like spin chains really are. Don’t worry if that’s already got your head spinning, because this episode’s packed with a lot more than just math: from the hard and soft skills of thesising, to why your high school job might matter more than you think.
You don’t have to look beyond Portland to see the topic of this thesis. Today we will be hearing from Economics/Mathematics Reed graduate, Ryan Kobler ’20, about her thesis on land pricing in Portland.
Reed community members can read Ryan’s thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive.