Interview with Mariana Smit Vega Garcia

Mariana Smit Vega Garcia is an Assistant Professor at Western Washington University, working in geometric analysis and partial differential equations. In this interview, Mariana speaks, among other things, about her math-life balance, the experience of representing different minorities and the joy of teaching mathematics. In addition: lots of friendly advice for undergrads! Mariana's webpage: http://faculty.wwu.edu/smitvem/​ Photo: from Mariana's webpage 0:00​ teaser 0:44​ didn’t want to be a professor 3:28​ trying to find math-life balance 9:10​ collaborators are friends 13:06​ mathematician-extrovert 16:05​ experiencing sexism 19:10​ burden of representing a minority 21:38​ insecurities in math 27:09​ joy of teaching 30:07​ motivation to do research 34:28​ algebraic vs analytic worlds 38:35​ pessimism in research 40:31​ we are more than our math 44:22​ moving around the world 49:35​ advice for students from faraway 52:32​ initiatives for minorities 58:32​ what students have to know 1:00:08​ final advice