Matthew Fischer, B.S. 2006
Assistant Professor in Residence, University of California Los Angeles Department of Anesthesiology – Los Angeles, Calif.
2006 Major: Mathematics and Biology
How has being a Mathematics graduate from Duke helped shape you personally and/or professionally?
"My training in mathematics, mathematical modeling and programming has served as a foundation that has allowed me to use these tools to identify genomic predictors of atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery. In addition, the mathematics contest in modeling was an event that I really enjoyed as an undergraduate. This experience always makes me think about how we can study what I see in the operating room through mathematics and genetics."
What advice would you give students in Duke's Mathematics programs?
"Mathematics is a discipline where you develop a skill that you can take with you throughout your career. For myself, I had a period of training where I focused on learning clinical medicine but then once I started developing my research focus as a junior faculty member, I returned to the mathematical training I learned at Duke to perform research in computational genomics."
