Eugénie Hunsicker loves calculus -- which is entirely appropriate for an assistant professor of mathematics and especially appropriate in this case, because calculus is the basis for much of her mathematical research. While on leave in 2001-02, Hunsicker worked with collaborators at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley on the geometry behind string theory, a continuation of work begun in her paper that appeared this fall in the Michigan Mathematical Journal.
At Lawrence, she has created a new course on groups and geometry, which constitute the language of current theoretical physics and are, likewise, fundamental to her ongoing research. She gave talks last year at Stanford and the University of Chicago and has been invited to speak at the Universities of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Texas and at St. Louis University this year.
On campus, she teaches in the Freshman Studies program, thoroughly enjoys teaching introductory calculus, and is guiding a senior independent study on Fourier analysis with a student who is considering graduate work in mathematics.
A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1999, Hunsicker earned her baccalaureate degree at Haverford College and the master's degree and doctorate from the University of Chicago.
With Karen Nordell, assistant professor of chemistry, she is inaugurating a partnership program for Lawrence women science and math majors and eighth-grade girls from two Appleton middle schools, along with a math and science celebration for middle-school girls next spring.
With Katherine Privatt, assistant professor of theatre and drama, she is organizing a Björklunden weekend seminar on the play Copenhagen, about a 1941 meeting between Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, that will examine the play, by Michael Frayn, both as science and as theatre.
