Interview with Mariana Smit Vega Garcia

<p>Mariana Smit Vega Garcia is an Assistant Professor at Western Washington University, working in geometric analysis and partial differential equations. In this interview, Mariana speaks, among other things, about her math-life balance, the experience of representing different minorities and the joy of teaching mathematics. In addition: lots of friendly advice for undergrads!</p> <p><br></p> <p>Mariana's webpage: <a href="http://faculty.wwu.edu/smitvem/​">http://faculty.wwu.edu/smitvem/​</a></p> <p>Photo: from Mariana's webpage</p> <p><br></p> <p>0:00​ teaser</p> <p>0:44​ didn’t want to be a professor</p> <p>3:28​ trying to find math-life balance</p> <p>9:10​ collaborators are friends</p> <p>13:06​ mathematician-extrovert</p> <p>16:05​ experiencing sexism</p> <p>19:10​ burden of representing a minority</p> <p>21:38​ insecurities in math</p> <p>27:09​ joy of teaching</p> <p>30:07​ motivation to do research</p> <p>34:28​ algebraic vs analytic worlds</p> <p>38:35​ pessimism in research</p> <p>40:31​ we are more than our math</p> <p>44:22​ moving around the world</p> <p>49:35​ advice for students from faraway</p> <p>52:32​ initiatives for minorities</p> <p>58:32​ what students have to know</p> <p>1:00:08​ final advice</p> <p><br></p> <p><br></p>