Sue Geller facts for kids

Sue Geller is an American mathematician who used to teach math at Texas A&M University. She is known for her research in a special area of math called algebraic K-theory. She also worked on projects that combined math with other subjects like biology and statistics.

What Sue Geller Studied

Sue Geller has done a lot of research in many different areas. She combined math with subjects like bioinformatics (using computers to understand biology), biostatistics (using statistics in biology), and computational biology (using computers to study living things). She also studied algebraic K-theory and cyclic homology, which are advanced math topics. She even looked into how math is taught. She has written over 30 research papers, showing she is a very skilled researcher who can work across different fields.

Math Research

In her math research, Sue Geller explored how different math ideas, like K-theory and homology, are connected. She used these connections to create ways to solve complex math problems. Her math research was published in many science magazines and presented at a big math conference in 1983.

Biology and Statistics Research

Sue Geller also worked in bioinformatics and biostatistics. She looked for new ways to understand data from microarray technology. This technology helps scientists study which genes are active in different parts of the body. She mainly focused on how to analyze small amounts of data using new statistical methods.

Math Education Research

Even though she didn't publish formal papers on it, Sue Geller became very interested in how math is taught around the year 2000. She helped guide two students who were getting their advanced degrees in math education. She also researched how information from college applications might predict if students would do well in university honors programs. She looked at how a math placement test helps students succeed in their recommended math classes, hoping to improve advice for new students.

Her Education Journey

Sue Geller earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, from the Case Institute of Technology in 1970. She then continued her studies at Cornell University. There, she received her Master of Science in mathematics in 1972. She completed her Ph.D. in mathematics from Cornell in 1975.

Her Doctoral Work

For her Ph.D., Sue Geller studied under Professor Stephen Chase. Her main focus was algebraic K-theory. Her doctoral paper was titled On the GE(sub n) of a Ring and Some New Algebraic K-Groups. While studying, she also worked as a teaching assistant and lecturer at Cornell. She was one of 21 women who earned a math doctorate from Cornell between 1868 and 1939. During that time, Cornell's math department awarded 100 doctorates in total.

Her Career

Most recently, Sue Geller held three important jobs at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. She was a professor of mathematics, a professor of veterinary integrative biosciences, and the director of honors programs in mathematics. She taught courses like "Survey of Mathematical Problems" and "History of Mathematics." She also led special study courses in different math topics.

Early Career

After finishing her education at Cornell, Geller worked for six years as an assistant professor at Purdue University. Then, she became a Faculty Fellow at Harvard University. She also spent a year as a research professor at Rutgers University from 1987 to 1988. In 1981, Geller joined Texas A&M University as an associate professor. She worked there for over 30 years in five different faculty roles before she retired. She also worked as a research biostatistician at the University of California at Davis from 2001 to 2002.

Helping Students and Women in Math

Besides teaching, Sue Geller started the first honors program for a department at Texas A&M University. She was the Director of Honors in Mathematics for several years. During her time at Texas A&M, she guided over 100 master's students and mentored many undergraduate students. Because she cared so much about helping students, the Department of Mathematics renamed its undergraduate research lecture series in 2018. It is now called the Sue Geller Undergraduate Lecture Series, honoring her dedication.

Geller strongly supports women in mathematics. She was part of the Mathematical Association of America's Committee on the Participation of Women from 1990 to 1994. A big part of her work was creating short plays that showed small, unfair actions (called micro-inequities) that women sometimes face in their math careers. She often used humor to fight these unfair actions and work towards equality for women in math.

She was also very active in the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). She was elected to their executive committee from 1989 to 1991. She served on the executive committee again as Clerk from 1999 to 2001.

Awards and Recognitions

In 2015, Sue Geller received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Student Relations from The Association of Former Students at Texas A&M. The award recognized her "transformative effect" on how math was taught at the university.

A year before that, in 2013, the Texas A&M Women's Faculty Network gave her the Outstanding Mentoring Award. This was for her efforts to guide and support newer faculty members at Texas A&M. In 2012, she received the Director's Award for Outstanding Service to Honors Programs from Texas A&M's office of Undergraduate Studies.

Geller also won the Texas A&M Department of Mathematics Outstanding Teaching Award three times.

In 2023, Geller was chosen as a fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics. This honor was for her great support of women in math through her research, teaching, and mentoring. It also recognized her work in addressing unfair actions and her long history of leadership in professional groups related to women in mathematics.