Mathcamp 2026 Staff

The summer staff at camp is made up of Faculty, Mentors, JCs, and the Camp Nurse. In addition, we bring several Visiting Speakers each summer who give guest lectures and courses.

Faculty at Mathcamp are professors (and professionals) in mathematics and related fields; Mentors are graduate students in mathematics and computer science. The Faculty and Mentors teach classes at camp, picking the course topics freely from among their favorite kinds of math. They also supervise projects, and serve as academic advisors, helping students choose their classes and work towards their mathematical goals for camp.

JCs, all of them camp alumni, are undergraduates who run the non-academic side of camp. They handle everything from camp setup to events, surveys, and social media. JCs also help out with academics, including TAing for classes and talking with campers about math.

Mentors and JCs live in the dorms with students, and each student is assigned a Mentor or JC as their residential advisor: RAs live on the same hall as their advisees and look out for them on a day-to-day basis.

Like campers, the staff often return year after year to Mathcamp!

The 2026 Directors, Faculty and Academic Coordinators:

• Ahmed Ellithy (Laithy) is a post-doc at Uppsala University, working on general relativity and geometric analysis. He enjoys squash, rock climbing, chess, and all kinds of games.
• Ania Łeń is one of the summer directors and part of the Mathcamp's year-round team. She enjoys travelling, hiking, climbing, playing tennis, squash and badminton, organizing educational events and drinking coffee.
• Arya Vadnere has been at Mathcamp since 2022, and is an Academic Coordinator this year. Mathematically he studies all things associated to surfaces; he's a geometric group theorist who hates groups. Other than that, he spends most of his time playing ultimate frisbee.
• Ben Dees has been teaching classes at Mathcamp since 2018, and returns as a member of the Faculty this summer. During the year, he teaches at Brown University and researches harmonic maps into metric spaces. He spends a lot of his free time playing board games, practicing archery, and listening to Canadian rock music.
• Charlotte Trainor is a teacher at Harvard University. She completed her PhD in analysis at the University of British Columbia. She enjoys being Canadian, cool weather, new pop music, fantasy books, and reality tv shows, usually of the social strategy variety.
• Kevin Carde started at Mathcamp as a Mentor in 2011. He joined the Mathcamp yearround staff after receiving his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 2014. His interests include combinatorics (especially algebraic) and solving and writing puzzles of all sorts.
• Marisa Debowsky is the Executive Director of MFOA and the director of Mathcamp. Her mathematical interests include Topological Graph Theory and other combinatorial pursuits; outside of math, she enjoys songwriting, NYT puzzles, and delicious coffee. She has been teaching and singing at Mathcamp since 2006.
• Mark Krusemeyer is retired, but until a few years ago he was Professor of Mathematics (and Senior Lecturer in Recorder) at Carleton College. His mathematical interests include algebra, combinatorics, number theory, and problem solving. His non-mathematical interests include music composed before 1800 or so, hiking/scrambling, duplicate bridge, and table tennis. He has been a faculty member at Mathcamp since 1997.
• Maya Saran is a descriptive set theorist by training, and has been yearround staff at Mathcamp since December 2023. She loves the summer because she gets to do and teach math at camp!
• Misha Lavrov's friends had to work very hard to convince him to come to Mathcamp as a camper in 2006. He liked it so much that he worked very hard to convince Mathcamp to hire him as a mentor in 2014, and has taught there every summer since then. His only interest in life is graph theory; fortunately, lots of things are graph theory, including friendship, the internet, learning new things, going on walks, and the video game Slipways.
• Narmada Varadarajan is a graduate student at the University of Toronto who changes her mind every year about what kind of math she does. This year it's secret geometry and secret group theory. She spends her free time fighting with her cat, doing various sorts of puzzles, and finding creative ways to get accidentally injured.
• Nikita Gladkov is a postdoc in Geneva doing research in percolation theory. He likes chess, DnD, music boxes, NYT Connections, badminton, old blogs and long walks.
• Riley Waugh is a high school math teacher in Portland, Oregon. His mathematical interests include analysis and combinatorics, but recently he is mostly interested in math education. Outside of math, he enjoys laughing at bad horror movies, cooking stuffed peppers, and going to the Portland go club.
• Susan Durst has been working for Mathcamp since 2008, and enjoys teaching classes in abstract algebra and mathematical logic. She received her PhD from Rutgers in 2013, and just finished teaching a year of mathematics at Proof School in San Francisco. Her nonmathematical interests include west coast swing dancing and choral music.
• Zach Abel is a principal lecturer at MIT, teaching discrete math and algorithms. His mathematical interests include geometry and theoretical computer science, and he also enjoys puzzles, designing mathematical sculptures, and chocolate. He has been teaching at Mathcamp on an off since 2013.

Mentors:

• August Liu is a grad student at Harvard studying algebraic number theory. He also enjoys tennis, Taskmaster, puzzle hunts, board games, and the music of Lady Gaga.
• Bowen Li is a grad student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying combinatorics. Outside of math, he likes running, hiking, and trying to cook food from different parts of the world, with varying degrees of success.
• Della Hendrickson is a grad student at MIT studying computational complexity. She enjoys square dancing, puzzles, and pandas.
• Glenn Sun is a grad student at the University of Washington, where he studies effective approaches to solve NP-complete problems and related topics in computer science. He enjoys cooking and going on urban adventures.
• Neelam: I’m a fourth-year graduate student at the University of Utah. I work in geometric and combinatorial group theory. You’ll see me around talking about “rooted trees” and thinking of climbing trees because other than math, I’m (unhealthily) obsessed with bouldering. I love mountains and often go for walks to see them. I enjoy cooking Indian food, baking cakes and I also do poetry.
• Riley "Purple" Shahar is a grad student at the University of Pennsylvania, working on algebraic topology. Outside of math and teaching she loves books, puzzles, board games, spending time with friends, and searching madly for a single color she hasn't yet dyed her hair.

JCs:

• Allison Hung is on a gap year before college, during which she has visited three continents, seven countries, and fourteen states so far. Besides traveling, she loves singing, dancing, puzzling, watching shows, baking, and going on new adventures.
• Athena Wu is a rising sophomore at MIT, studying mathematics and who knows what else. She enjoys all kinds of speculative fiction, views from high places, and fire spinning.
• Bo Browder is a rising sophomore at Stanford and is interested in studying physics and mathematics. He loves long conversations and riddles during hikes, reading gothic novels, and singing all day long.
• Joy Xie just finished her first year studying Math and Physics at MIT. In her free time, she enjoys juggling, unicycling, and telling people that she attends Clown College.
• Keti Gogishvili just finished her second year in École Polytechnique, studying CS and Mathematics. She enjoys doing a bit of everything - playing on guitar, going to concerts, climbing, finding non-rat animals in Paris.
• Małgosia Boguszewska is about to start her third year at the University of Warsaw, where she studies mathematics. In her free time, she enjoys baking, cycling, going on long walks, and playing board games.
• Nathan Smith just graduated from Brown University and is hyped to start a math PhD at the University of Michigan. He is also hyped about running, dancing, dancing while running, and reading at least one page before bed.
• Preston Bushnell is an incoming graduate student at UCLA, where he plans to study set theory. He is a fan of biking, trying new kinds of tea, and interesting mugs.
• Spencer Hill is a rising Sophomore at UCSB studying math. He likes taking long walks along the beach, singing a capella, and funny/philosophical poetry.

Camp Nurse:

• Cathy Stanke: This is my 2nd year at Mathcamp as your resident nurse! I am excited to get to know you and will do my best to keep you healthy. I am from Missoula, Montana where i have worked in healthcare for many years. I enjoy traveling, eating local foods and a good cup of tea. I like to make quilts and will be working on some at camp.