AMS Early Career Profile: Peter Huggins

Peter Huggins Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis Position: Current graduate student at UC Berkeley Research Focus: Computational biology and applied mathematics Industry Sector: Education

What he does:

• Peter Huggins is a graduate student in mathematics at UC Berkeley, where he currently works on computational biology and algebraic statistics. Peter often works with computers, and he spent the summer of 2005 as an intern at Google.

Math on the job:

• At Google, Peter used statistics and combinatorics to explore methods for improving search results. At UC Berkeley, he's studied connections between computational biology and algebraic geometry (a powerful branch of mathematics which, despite having much to offer science, has been largely overlooked). He's used high-dimensional polyhedral geometry to find reliable alignments of DNA sequences of fruit flies. At UC Berkeley Peter is also a collaborator on a project that uses commutative algebra to compute hyperdeterminant formulas in order to better understand the "tangle" of a system of quantum computer bits.

Peter's background:

• Peter received his Bachelor's degree in mathematics from UC Davis, with a minor in computer science. While at UC Davis, he was a mathematics research assistant supervised by Jesus De Loera in the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program. He entered the UC Berkeley mathematics Ph.D. program in 2004.

Advice for students:

• "If you're an undergrad who wants to excel in academics, then take the initiative. Don't just pass your required classes. Look for undergrad research opportunities, talk to your professors, take graduate courses, and write a senior thesis."