{"id":13937,"date":"2016-06-01T08:31:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T13:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=13937"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:28","slug":"math-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=13937","title":{"rendered":"Mathematician’s research sheds light on urban crime, segregation, ecology, more"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"wsw_nancy-rodriguez-bunn\"Nancy Rodriguez-Bunn<\/a> is a mathematics professor within the UNC<\/span> College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on mathematical modeling and analysis to shed light on topics like urban crime, segregation, cell movement, and\u00a0ecology.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When you were a little girl, what was your response to this question: \u201cWhat do you want to be when you grow\u00a0up?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
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I grew up in a small, rural town in Mexico so it was difficult to have high aspirations.\u00a0My dream was to be a bank teller so that my grandparents would no longer have to stand in line to wait for service.\u00a0Interestingly enough, my first job was as a bank teller, so you can say that I achieved my goal when\u00a0I\u00a0was 16 years old.<\/p>\n

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Describe your research in five\u00a0words.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
“Understanding social phenomena\u00a0using\u00a0math.\u201d<\/div>\n
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What made you want to be a\u00a0scientist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always loved mathematics. In particular,\u00a0I loved that you did not have to memorize concepts, but rather think through steps to get to the answer.\u00a0I\u00a0believe math teaches me the problem-solving skills that can help tackle some of the world\u2019s many problems.<\/p>\n

Share a funny story about being a\u00a0mathematician. <\/strong><\/p>\n

My family\u00a0understands very little about what I do. In fact,\u00a0my parents still think I\u2019m doing homework when they see me work.\u00a0I\u00a0remember two particularly funny moments both related to my sisters, neither of whom are fond of math. The first one was when I was home over the holidays, sitting at the kitchen table working on my thesis work.\u00a0My older sister approached me and asked me why I was drawing \u201clittle snakes\u201d (referring to the integral sign). Another time, my younger sister, when talking about my profession, said she wished that\u00a0I\u00a0was a \u201cmath-magician,\u201d so that\u00a0I\u00a0could make all of math\u00a0disappear.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to up-and-coming female researchers in your\u00a0field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reach out to professors and fellow colleagues interested in mathematics. This field is much more fun when you can discuss problems with others. Have mentors who will advocate for you. Most importantly, work hard, but also play hard.\u00a0Sometimes you get stuck thinking about a problem \u2014 too focused on the tree instead of the forest.\u00a0It is so important to step back from your work and give yourself some breathing room to recover and relax.\u00a0In mathematics, this can truly improve your productivity and happiness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Part of UNC<\/span> Research’s “Women in Science Wednesday” s<\/a>eries.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nancy Rodriguez-Bunn is a mathematics professor within the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. She works to understand social phenomena using math.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-diversity","category-social-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47756,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937\/revisions\/47756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}