Math Tools for Life
Jimena Davis
North Carolina State University
Sandia National Laboratories New Mexico
Story by Jacob Berkowitz
Seated on her apartment patio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jimena Davis looked west across the cactus-covered foothills and watched the setting sun splash pink light across the peaks of the Sandia Mountains. The sweet fragrance of desert sage wafted through the air. Compared to her usual surroundings, she might as well have been on a different planet, but she felt right at home.
It was the first time this Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow had visited or lived in part of the United States outside the East Coast. The summer practicum at Sandia National Laboratories that brought her to Albuquerque was like the mountains — they pulled her out of herself and made her think creatively, both personally and professionally. As a result, she’s using math to contribute to computational biology tools that are enhancing our ability to mimic cellular processes, and thus better understand what makes life tick — including us.
Fished In
As a high school student in Mullins, South Carolina — population 5,000, with an economy rooted in centuries-old tobacco farms — it was clear Davis had a passion and a penchant for math. Her guidance counselors recommended a career in engineering and she agreed. But at Clemson University her freshman applied math professor pulled her aside one day after class and asked: Have you considered majoring in math?
“I was surprised. I didn’t know I could major in mathematical science,” Davis recalls. “The high school guidance counselors had never mentioned it.”
Simulated mosquitofish population density data generated with a Bi-Gaussian growth rate. Click image for larger version |
Within weeks, Davis was a math major. During her last semester at Clemson her math path was further paved when, at a workshop sponsored by SAMSI, the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, she met North Carolina State applied mathematician H.T. Banks. He spoke passionately about the use of applied mathematics on a variety of problems in science and engineering. It was exactly what she was looking for — the ability to make a difference with a subject she loves.
At NC State, Davis was quickly hooked on a long-standing computational biology model that Banks, now her advisor, had been angling for: understanding the population dynamics of mosquitofish.
