About Us

Instructors

Claire Merriman will run the cryptography course at SIM Camp Epsilon in 2016. She created and ran the number theory and cryptology class at the 2015 camp. She is current a third year graduate student in mathematics, interested in differential geometry and number theory. During the academic year, Claire helps with outreach activities organized by the University of Illinois chapter of the Association of Women in Mathematics, which encourage girls to continue studying math and science, as well as organizing the outreach activities in the Illinois Geometry Lab. Previously, she has taught Algebra 1 to gifted and talented rising 7th and 8th graders at the Duke TiP summer program.

Melinda Lanius will run the topological games course at SIM Camp Epsilon and the non-Euclidean geometry course at SIM Camp Delta. She was responsible for the algebraic topology curriculum at the 2015. She is a fourth year graduate student in mathematics where she employs techniques from geometric analysis to solve problems in geometry and topology. She was a co-organizer of the 2014 Gathering for Gardner and the 2015 Pi Day.

Vanessa Rivera Quiñones will run the mathematical biology course at SIM Camp Delta. She is a third year student in the department of mathematics, interested in adaptive dynamics and differential equations

Organizers

Claire Merriman is the creator and director of SIM Camp.d

Melinda Lanius is an assistant director at SIM Camp.

Simone Sisneros-Thiry is the program coordinator for the 2016 SIM Camp. She is a graduate student in the department of mathematics.

Michelle Delcourt is an assistant director at SIM Camp. She is a fifth year graduate student in mathematics, interested in combinatorics. She is the outreach manager at of the Illinois Geometry Lab and the University of Illinois chapter of the Association of Women in Mathematics, where she has helped create and organize the Sonia Kovalesky Math Days for High School Girls and Girls Engaged in Math and Science programs.

Acknowledgements

Jayadev Athreya was the faculty sponsor for the 2015 SIM Camp. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington and co-founder of the Illinois Geometry Lab.

We would also like to thank David Prichard for designing our website and Tori Corkery for designing our poster.