Section 7 About Your Professor
I’m Dr. Hollingsworth (call me Dr.\(\mathcal H\text{!}\)), and I am a new(ish) Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics within Minnesota State University, Mankato. I grew up in the Ozark Mountains in North Central Arkansas, and I spent a lot of time outdoors hiking, bicycling, and hammock camping. I don’t get a lot of time for hiking or camping these days, but I still commute to campus by bicycle or electric kick-scooter almost every day.
I started homeschooling after sixth grade, with almost no math curriculum. Consequently, I didn’t really start learning mathematics until I started at the community college when I was 25.
Before that, I spent 6 years as a (self-taught) computer programmer working primarily on transportation and logistics software for line haul trucking companies, followed by 2 years as a freelance photographer (My favorite CV line item from this time is being published in a magazine titled Blood & Thunder!). At school, I started as a business major with a minor in studio art, and the major quickly changed to mathematics. I eventually transfered and graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a BA in Mathematics and a minor in studio art (mostly printmaking and ceramics). After taking a year off to teach at a community college, I went to the University of Delaware for my Master’s and Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics, writing my dissertation on the underlying mathematical framework for high-dimensional signal processing and studying constructions of such schemes. Now, I spend a lot of time crafting materials for the courses I teach (like this one!) and do my best to help students succeed.
I have lived in North Mankato for three years now with my partner and our dog Gemma. We all enjoy cooking (well, Gemma enjoys eating), reading, and bicycling. We enjoy good coffee (we use an Aeropress or Flair) and I enjoy cleaning, although neither of the other two do. Most of my free time/weekends are spent on home-improvement projects. This summer, we travelled to Scotland and also finally unpacked from our last move.
On campus, I am teaching two sections of MATH122 Calculus II and one section of MATH605 Graphs and Algorithms. I am also running a math playground at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, writing a book on Algebraic Combinatorics and Optimization, and mentoring through the National Math Stars program. I stay busy!
You can follow my dog Gemma’s personal adventures on her Instagram (@GemmaIsAGoodGirl), which just shows you that my dog is better at social media than I am. However, you can find me online through my website (woefully in need of updating, I plan on moving it to GitHub pages eventually) at sites.google.com/view/math-kgh.
