Hi there! This is my first time writing a blog post, so I hope you enjoy it! My name is Samantha Tyner, and I’m a first year grad student in Statistics at Iowa State University. I graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL in May 2012, with a BA (yes, a BA, not a BS) in Mathmatics, Economics, and French. I was invited to write for this blog by a former professor of mine from Augustana, Dr. Brian Katz (who is also a contributor).
When he first suggested that I write for this math grad student blog, I must admit I was a little skeptical. After all, I’m not really a mathematician anymore! But, after giving it some serious thought, I decided that maybe I could contribute some insights into the world of statistics to this blog that you might (and will hopefully) find interesting in the least and fascinating or possibly thrilling at best! (Thanks, BK!)
The first topic I decided to investigate is the difference between how the world perceives mathematicians and how the world perceives statisticians. Having been a little bit of both, I can tell you that the perceptions are in fact quite different. The biggest thing I noticed when I transitioned from being a mathematician to being a statistician was that the questions people were asking me about my life goals changed significantly.
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In some ways my new courses seem old. I am taking algebraic geometry and algebra. Two of the main topics of these courses – rings and algebraic (especially elliptic) curves – were introduced to me in a previous algebraic number theory course. I am looking forward to cementing my understanding of these topics and learn some new concepts. I think I am on the road to becoming an algebraist.