Professor
Wartburg College
Mariah Birgen’s 1997 PhD thesis, Asymptotic Estimates and Applications of Generalized Husimi Functions, was written under the direction of Alejandro Uribe. Mariah came to Michigan Math from Berkeley, where she completed a BS in Engineering Physics, together with her future husband, Brian Birgen. Brian completed his PhD in 1997 as well, under the direction of David Barrett.
Mariah loves her job at Wartburg College, a small liberal arts college in the idyllic town Waverly, Iowa, where she and Brian often host parties for their students. She was hired as assistant professor straight from graduate school in “applied mathematics”— it is amazing what a person can agree to when they have a different definition of a field than the people who are hiring. Brian had a two-year postdoc at Purdue and then taught part time for another two years before another position opened up in the same department.
Mariah has enjoyed the opportunity to teach different subjects including Physics and Gender Studies. Recently she got to step in with 4 hours notice and teach a couple of weeks of Quantum Mechanics. One of the coolest classes she gets to teach every 4 years is called the Historical Roots of Math, Computer Science and Physics in the British Isles. The class travels to the UK and Ireland to study first hand the development of the mathematical sciences in this area from the time of Newton’s birth to the present day.
As for research at Wartburg, Mariah has studied the intersection of mathematics teaching and technology, multicandidate elections, and many modeling problems. Most recently, after participating in the Geometry of Redistricting Conference and Workshop, she has been studying the geometry of redistricting to make elections more fair, particularly ways of teaching this new area of study to undergraduate students. [By the way, these “Anti-Gerrymanding Workshops” were pioneered by former UM postdoc Moon Duchin, who was selected by the state of Pennsylvania to help redraw district lines.]
Professor Birgen is active in the MAA and has been elected to a variety of local leadership positions including Chair and Governor of the Iowa Section of the MAA. She is currently an active member of the Committee on Assessment having just finished her term as Section Representative (formerly Section Governor). She is also an active participant in the IBL community having learned early on at Michigan that most of her students do not learn very much from a standard lecture.
Mariah and Brian Birgen have three children, all of whom have very warped brains and don’t understand why people think math is hard. For example, years ago when the 10-year-old told the 5-year-old that he was thinking of a number she responded with “x.” His reply was, “No, -x”.
Words of Wisdom from Mariah Birgen: Join the MAA if you are interested in a teaching career at a liberal arts college. Learn to program. Learn statistics. When I am trying to hire it is impossible for me to hire in computer science, statistics, and mathematics education (which requires a year of teaching K-12). If you are interested in teaching in one of these areas, you are more likely to find a job even if it isn’t your primary research interest. You are going to be teaching 6 or 7 different courses every year and you may get to teach one every two or three years in something tangentially related to your research area.