Clearly Amazing

CLEARLY AMAZING Table of ConTenTs 2 THe PRoof 4 journey to cloud 9 Nadia Abuelezam ’09, Alumna You know that feeling…when you’re deep into 6 hold on to your socks Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Professor, Computer Science a problem, and for a moment the world drops away, and you’re alone 8 We All leArn In A YELLOW suBMArIne with your work, and in the space of what seems like a breath, the problem HMC Clinic Program 10 ProVInG Ground Sam Gordon ’09, Alumnus breaks, you see what you couldn’t have seen before, and then the moment 12 sudden IMPAct Liz Orwin ’95, Alumna passes, and you’re back in the world; you feel like a diver returning to the Professor, Engineering 14 THE WoW FActor Bea Metitiri ’12, Alumna water’s surface, and you know that you’ve done something new, built the 16 FLY Guy Stan Love ’87, Alumnus unbuilt, imagined the impossible, and everything around you feels fresh 17 THe manual 18 the AcAdeMIc ProGrAM and connected, a beautiful abstraction and a concrete truth. 20 Research and Clinic 22 Biology 24 Chemistry We are that feeling. We’re the only college brave 26 Computer Science 28 Engineering enough and crazy enough to nurture the next generation of fluid, fearless, 30 Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts 32 Mathematics forward-looking scientists. 34 Physics 36 Special Programs & Joint Majors We are Harvey Mudd College. 38 cAMPus lIFe 42 Beyond cAMPus 43 And then WhAt? 45 AdMIssIon & FInAncIAl AId 47 VISITING THE PROOF [1 ] YOU’RE THE CENTER OF ten reasons any reasonable person OUR UNIVERSE. All of our 780 students are undergraduates. The student-to-faculty ratio is 9 to 1. You would be logically compelled TO love us are the reason we’re here. [2 ] WE GET OUR HANDS DIRTY. We spend more than $3 million every year on undergraduate research. Our curriculum is riddled with hands-on experience. A high percentage of our students participate in summer research with faculty. Major corporations pay more than $45,000 to have teams of our students solve their problems as part of our renowned Clinic Program. You’ll do research. And it will matter. [3 ] OUR PROFESSORS ARE APPROACHABLE. Yes, they’ve all got the highest degree in their field, and yes, they expect you to join them in conducting world-class research. But they’re also real people. They run marathons, they sing in choirs, they play in jazz bands, they compete in “Dancing with the Claremont Stars.” [4 ] OUR CURRICULUM [8 ] WE’RE A COMMUNITY. WILL CHANGE YOU (FOR THE We live by an honor code, we help BETTER); We have a Core curricu- each other, we throw legendary lum that provides, shall we say, an parties. We go trayless in the dining intensive introduction to the major hall and monitor our dorms’ energy fields of study. Both challenging and usage, and we play complicated invigorating, it’ll make you a strong, and reversible pranks. Students well-rounded student. collaborate, not compete. You’ll belong here. [5 ] WE HAVE A SOFTER SIDE. We’re a liberal arts college interested [9 ] WE’RE GEEKS. We’re in the human experience. At least 25 geeks—if by “geek” you mean “a percent of your coursework will be multidimensional, polyvalent, in the humanities, social sciences seriously interesting person who and the arts. You’ll be an enlightened happens to really, really love math, human being—and an exceptional science, engineering, humanities, scientist. One follows naturally social sciences or the arts.” We from the other. have lives and interests and tastes and something approaching style. [6 ] WE’RE NOT ALONE. We’re a Yes, we’re all that. member of The Claremont Colleges, one of the nation’s oldest college [10 ] WE SUCCEED BEYOND consortia. You’ll have access to more MUDD. Our graduates have serious than 2,500 courses, more than 300 options. When you graduate, you’ll be clubs and organizations, two million looking at jobs with excellent salaries. volumes in the Colleges’ library and You’ll be looking at funding packages dozens of majors. at top Ph.D. programs. You’ll have opportunities to do advanced work [7 ] WE’RE SMART. But modest. at major corporations and research By any numerical standard, we rock. labs. Or you may do something else You’ll be surrounded by people who completely unexpected and essential. represent the future of your field. You’ll be the future of the field. HARvEy MUDD COLLEGE | the proof 3 4 HARvEy MUDD COLLEGE | profiles naDIa journey to ABUELEZam ’09 PH.D. STUDENT EPIDEMIOLOGy CLOUD 9 HARvARD UNIvERSITy ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... HMC ALUMNI PROFILE MATHEMATICAL bIOLOGY GRaDUATe, HaRVeY MUDD COLLEGe ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... This is not a story about How she spent her summer vacation meteorology, although it could “I spent eight weeks in Uganda, working with an AIDS support organization. I did mathematical modeling and found a way to distribute medication in rural and urban areas. I extended that work into my senior thesis.” be, since it contains pretty much everything else in the What “mathematical modeling” and “hiv/aids” are doing in the same sentence “A model gives you a representation of what’s happening in real life—and then it lets you experiment with that known universe, like poverty model. The organization I worked with could see their current distribution patterns—and then experiment with and mathematical modeling ways to make them more efficient and effective.” and infectious disease and WHY THIS work is important thoughtful professors and “Thirty-three million people around the world are infected with this disease. A majority of those people are living a Mudder named Nadia in poverty. We don’t have a cure. It sounds cheesy, but it’s my way to make a difference in other people’s lives.” Abuelezam, whom you really when people talk, people envision should meet. “I get excited by work that involves two fields I really love: math and biology. It turns out that all the most important work is interdisciplinary. I didn’t really understand that until I came to Mudd. You see it in the Core, where professors make the courses speak to each other. I saw it in my Clinic project, which utilized math and chemistry and biology and computer science. When you’ve got complex problems, the solutions are going to involve different disciplines.” from vision to action “I’d been talking to professors about infectious disease—in every class project, I’d try to incorporate it. Then I got an email from a professor who was starting the class HIV/AIDS, Science and Service. As part of the class, he put me in touch with people he knew in Uganda. I was on cloud nine. That’s how it works here. What do you want to do? What do you care about? Let’s make it happen.” HARvEy MUDD COLLEGE | profiles 5 Ran lIbesKInD-HaDas R. MICHAEL SHANAHAN PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND CHAIR, COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT HOLD ON HARvEy MUDD COLLEGE to your socks ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... HMC FACULTY PROFILE ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... This is Ran “Ron” Libeskind- WHAT YOU’LL DO OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM “Lab work is hugely important. We have an enormous summer research presence. More than 150 students spend Hadas. He doesn’t write code, the summer doing paid research with faculty. That ratio is astounding.” work in a windowless office or WHAT IT’S LIKE TO DO RESEARCH WITH HIM survive only on energy drinks “My work is extremely theoretical—I’m designing and analyzing the most efficient way to solve optical networking and junk food. And yet he’s problems—but my research is hands-on. When I work with students on a summer research project, we’ll read a computer scientist. In fact, papers together, meet several times a day, talk about the problems we’re working on—and then we’ll go to the he’s on a mission to change white board or sit with a pencil and paper. This is sophisticated stuff, but the students are extremely capable.” your ideas about computers, GET THE BIG PICTURE, SURF THE WAVE programming and computer “This is a dynamic field; the skill sets we’re using now won’t be the skill sets we’ll use 10 years from now. So we’re trying to expose students to the big picture. We want to convey major intellectual ideas and problem-solving science itself. strategies; we want our students to be better thinkers and communicators. If you’ve got the big principles, then you can surf the wave.” What THIS HAS TO DO WITH SOCKS “In my computational complexity theory course, I asked students

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