Dr. Sam Vandervelde will serve as the men's cross country team's Faculty/Staff Mentor for the 2012-13 season.
Vandervelde joined the faculty at St. Lawrence University in the fall of 2007. Since then he has launched a student problem solving seminar, written a textbook for the department proofs course, initiated a friendly mathematical rivalry with other New York colleges, and taken the lead in organizing the Festival of Science, an annual event showcasing student research. He strives to provide a lively, engaging mathematical experience for his students, both in and out of the classroom.
Prior to arriving at St. Lawrence he participated in a number of math circles in the San Francisco Bay Area, forming and directing the Stanford Math Circle for two years. Dr. Vandervelde has also taught at Wellesley College for three semesters and at the Roxbury Latin School, a private boys school in the Boston area, for five years. He writes and oversees the Mandelbrot Competition, a national high school math contest.
Dr. Vandervelde's mathematical interests encompass number theory, graph theory, combinatorics, and Euclidean geometry. Current research includes work on arithmetic graph sums and new partition identities. Other projects include revising and polishing a textbook entitled Bridge to Higher Mathematics.
