When she was growing up 15 minutes down the road in Latham, Ellen Gasparovic had no idea that she would one day end up teaching at Union.
Although she always loved math, the associate professor of mathematics was equally drawn to other subjects, and her favorite was constantly changing. Her desire to explore a wide range of interests before committing to a specific path prompted her to apply early decision to a liberal arts college - College of the Holy Cross. Although other majors called to her along the way, she ultimately chose mathematics for its logical beauty and for the creativity and problem-solving it requires.
Ellen Gasparovic, associate professor of mathematics, with her husband, Jeff Jauregui, professor of mathematics.
Gasparovic earned her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012. Before coming home to the Capital Region and joining Union, she held academic positions at Haverford College, the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University (where she survived basketball season by defiantly carrying her UNC mug everywhere).
Gasparovic's research lies in applied topology and shape analysis, spanning both theoretical and computational work. She is especially interested in using ideas from topology and geometry to extract meaningful structure from data.
Some of Gasparovic's favorite courses to teach are "Discrete Mathematics," "Linear Algebra," "Abstract Algebra 2," "Mathematics and Democracy" (co-taught with Zoe Oxley in the Political Science department), and whatever she happens to be teaching at the moment.
She and her husband, Jeff Jauregui, professor of mathematics at Union and a Duke University graduate, live in Niskayuna with their 7-year-old son. The family enjoys playing board games, swimming, taking walks and bike rides, and traveling to places like California, Maine and Aruba. It remains to be seen whether their son will choose to root for the Tar Heels or the Blue Devils.
FIRST APP YOU LOOK AT IN THE MORNING: I go for my laptop before my phone. Some key tabs: Gmail, New York Times games (my son and I create our own Wordles for each other), the OrangeTheory Fitness subreddit (there's a guy in Australia who posts the workout of the day super early so people like me can decide whether we want to go or not) and Slate (including all of their advice columns).
WHAT ARE YOU READING?: My friend Cigdem in the Political Science department and I are usually reading something together. Some of our favorites have been “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust and all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s work. We just finished “We Do Not Part” by Han Kang. Basically, we love books about time, memory and retrospection. On a lighter note, my mom and I are always suggesting some twisty new psychological thriller to each other.
WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING?: The Pitt. I took a quiz to find out which character I’m most similar to, and I got Dr. Mohan, which felt right. I also watch way too many cooking competition shows and dream of going on The Traitors.
BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU RECEIVED: My undergraduate advisor was the person who suggested to me that I should go to graduate school for math. He also advised me to apply to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is where I ended up going for my PhD. It turns out that is also where I met my husband (at a Duke-UNC math party!), so a lot of good things sprung from his great advice!
ONE SKILL YOU WISH YOU HAD: I’ve never acted in a play and have always wanted to!
THREE DINNER PARTY GUESTS (living or deceased): Amy Poehler for her incredible ability to put people at ease and bring out their most interesting and hilarious stories. Taylor Swift so she could give me an hours-long private concert since I never made it to the Eras Tour. And Nikki Glaser so she could roast the heck out of me and the other guests.
LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT YOU: I’m a serial puzzle-solver like my dad. If I'm waiting in line, I’m likely working on one of a dozen different math or word puzzles or looking up practice questions from the old LSAT Logic Games section.
FAVORITE UNION MEMORY/EXPERIENCE: Getting to meet and take a photo in the Nott with Ben Schwartz '03 when he was our commencement speaker.
ONE THING YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Tea, for sure. I used to be a huge coffee drinker but I switched to tea a while ago and have never looked back.
WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE: My older brother. When we were kids, he would do things like take apart our appliances and read computer coding manuals for fun. He went on to work at several major tech companies at a high level and recently founded his own predictive aviation technology startup. I admire not only his brilliance and confidence, but especially his kindness and humility.
