Dr. Kenneth G. Monks

program director

Dr. Kenneth G. Monks is the coach of several math competition teams and professor of mathematics at the University of Scranton where he has shared his love of mathematics for the past twenty-nine years. The author of Lurch¹ (a word processor that checks your proofs) and coach of the four-time national championship-winning Lehigh Valley ARML team,² his methods have helped countless students reach their goals.

An experienced coach of middle school teams for MATHCOUNTS and high school teams for HMMT and ARML, he received the Samuel L. Greitzer Distinguished Coach Award in 2010. His students have consistently placed at or near the top in state, national, and international mathematics competitions, and nearly a hundred have gone on to attend MIT, Harvard, and Princeton.

At the college level he was named the University of Scranton CASE Professor of the Year. With a Ph.D. in algebraic topology and numerous research publications on pure and applied mathematics, he has also mentored many student research projects for both undergraduate and high school students. These projects have frequently led to publications for the students in refereed journals, and/or have placed well at the Regeneron STS and the former Siemens high school research competitions.

When he is not teaching mathematics, he can usually be found running on remote trails in the woods and mountains of Pennsylvania and Colorado. An ardent distance runner, he has completed numerous marathons and ultramarathons, including the Boston Marathon, several 50 mile trail races, and the Leadville 100 mile ultramarathon.

Dr. Kenneth M. Monks

Dr. Kenneth M. Monks obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from Colorado State University, specializing in finite group theory and combinatorics. Upon graduating, he began teaching at Front Range Community College - Boulder County Campus. He is president of the Colorado Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges and president-elect of the FRCC Boulder County Campus Faculty Senate.

In his time at BCC, he won the 2017 Boulder County Campus Master Teacher Award as well as the 2019 MAA Rocky Mountain Section Early Career Teaching Award. He has authored a free Learning-Assistant ready calculus textbook under a Front Range President's Innovation Grant and has worked with the NSF-supported group TRIUMPHS to create projects for the undergraduate mathematics classroom using primary sources from Fermat, Euler, and Braess. The head of the local Putnam Club, he teaches students advanced mathematics in preparation for the prestigious William Lowell Putnam Exam. He also has extensive private tutoring experience and has tutored students of all abilities — from first-year college students struggling with calculus to high school math olympiad winners looking to learn more advanced material.

The author of several research papers, he published his first article while still an undergraduate. A participant of the Penn State REU and a mentor at the University of Arizona VIGRE program on computational group theory, he is no stranger to summer programs for students seeking the background necessary to do research.

When he is not teaching mathematics, he spends his time playing the guitar, lifting weights, cooking, and spending time with his wife and growing family.

Dr. Maria Monks Gillespie

Dr. Maria Monks Gillespie is an assistant professor of mathematics at Colorado State University, where she does research in combinatorics, algebraic geometry, and representation theory. Her educational background in mathematics includes a bachelor’s degree from MIT, a master’s from Cambridge, and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. As a former instructor at MOSP, coach of the USA CGMO team,³ an IDEA MATH instructor, and a successful participant in math competitions herself, Maria understands firsthand the needs and challenges of talented young students of mathematics.

In addition to her coaching, she has also been a Duluth REU advisor, an AoPS Online Course Instructor, a Girls’ Angle mentor, and a grader and problem writer for proof-based math competitions ranging from USAMTS to USAMO. Author of the popular math blog Mathematical Gemstones, she believes that anyone can learn to appreciate the beauty and rigor of mathematics. She combines her in-person mentoring skills with online projects in order to spread that message far and wide.

Maria began doing original mathematical research in high school, and has published numerous research papers in mathematics journals. An undergraduate researcher at MIT, the Duluth REU, and the Madison REU, she won both the Alice T. Schafer Prize and the Morgan Prize for her work, and was a recipient of the Churchill, Hertz, and NSF fellowships.

Beyond mathematics she enjoys singing and playing the piano. An NCAA All-American in cross country, she is also an accomplished distance runner. Her love of the outdoors and fitness has inspired her to run the Boston Marathon and complete several trail ultramarathons, including two 50-mile trail races.

Prof. Gina Monks

Prof. Gina Monks is the director of the Math Dimension, the mathematics learning center at Penn State’s Hazleton campus. An assistant teaching professor in the mathematics department, she has also served as the President of the Faculty Senate. Her love and passion for teaching, her talent for sharing mathematics, and her friendly, approachable personality have earned her the Teacher of the Year award at her university five times. As campus coordinator for the NSF Toys'n More grant, her methods produced the highest gains in students' mathematical learning among all Penn State branch campuses.

Working with Penn State’s Eberly College of Science, Gina is one of the senior personnel on the NSF Amplifying Strategies for Enabling the Success of Penn State Science 2+2 Students grant. Their work includes encouraging and supporting other faculty at University Park and Commonwealth campuses who wish to adopt successful pedagogical methods and proven active learning approaches in their classroom.

Gina’s teaching skills stem not only from her training, but from her experience as a mother. For twenty years before her teaching career even began, she was a stay-at-home mom to her three children. When she is not helping students with mathematics, she is often found running, having run the Boston Marathon three times and also completed several trail ultramarathons.

Dr. Bryan Gillespie

Dr. Bryan Gillespie is a visiting research associate at Colorado State University. He holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computer science from Penn State where he graduated first in his class, and earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from UC Berkeley studying matroid theory and commutative algebra. He has six years of experience teaching undergraduate mathematics, and was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award. He also volunteers at local mathematical events for youth, such as the Julia Robinson Math Festival, the Stanford Math Circle and Colorado State University’s Math Day, and he tutors privately on the side.

In addition to being an accomplished mathematician and teacher, Bryan is an experienced musician and a skilled programmer. He can both sing and play a diverse range of instruments, including the saxophone, flute, and bass.

Jacob Wachspress

Jacob Wachspress is an undergraduate student at Princeton University who will complete his Bachelor's degree in mathematics before the 2020 summer program. Jacob is a teaching assistant for MAT215, helping Princeton’s budding math majors with their first proof-based course. He is a lead organizer for the Princeton University Mathematics Competition (PUMaC), which attracts 600 competitors from high schools around the world each year.

Jacob competed on the Pennsylvania team at the national MATHCOUNTS competition in eighth grade and was the 2016 winner of the MATHCOUNTS alumni scholarship. He was a member of the Lehigh Valley ARML team for six years, including two years as the team captain, where his leadership and organizational skills helped the team to two top 8 finishes nationally. He was a four-time champion and is now the problem writer for the Bucks County High School Math League. He is experienced in math education, from private tutoring to doing homework help at the Boys and Girls Club of Trenton to working as a math teacher on a 9-month service program in Bolivia. There, he taught at an alternative K-12 school almost exclusively through math games and discovery activities.

Aside from mathematics, Jacob enjoys playing baseball, piano, and fantasy football. He can often be found jogging in green places or wasting time online watching sports highlights, amazing musical performances, or poker videos.

Keenan Monks

Keenan Monks is a graduate of Harvard with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Secondary in Computer Science. A "Math 55er", Keenan has taught other Harvard undergraduates through private tutoring for math courses and through serving as a Teaching Fellow for several computer science courses. In 2014, he received a Derek Bok Distinction in Teaching Award for his work as an instructor in an intro-level computer science course aimed at teaching proof-based mathematics to aspiring computer science majors.

Keenan was the Pennsylvania State MATHCOUNTS champion in eighth grade, honorable mention at the Shing-Tung Yau research competition, and sixth-place national winner at the Intel Science Talent Search. Additionally, in a more collaborative setting, his leadership helped the Lehigh Valley ARML team win three consecutive national championships. He currently works as a software engineer at Facebook.

As a participant at the Duluth, Emory, and Madison REU summer programs, he has gone on to publish no less than six mathematical research papers on topics ranging from the Collatz Conjecture to the theory of supersingular elliptic curves.

Outside of mathematics, Keenan enjoys working out in various ways including weightlifting and dance. An experienced musician, he enjoys music production, singing in an a cappella group and producing original EDM tracks in his spare time.