Lily Whitesell's passion for STEM subjects flourished into endeavors spanning multiple disciplines, institutions, and countries while at Rhodes.

Blair Kinsey ’24, Hannah Meit ’25, and Lily Whitesell ’24 participated in the 84th William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. The rigorous competition is administered by the Mathematical Association of America, and the Rhodes students competed with some of the brightest minds from colleges and universities across the country, including Harvard, MIT, and Princeton.

Four Rhodes students—Parth Sinojia, Samuel Lippe, Shayla Garrison, and Lauren Surratt—presented research at the 26th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education held recently in Omaha, NE. Prof. Erika David Parr accompanied the group and also presented at the conference, which had more than 300 in-person and 100 virtual attendees.

Molly Hirner, a Rhodes College junior pursuing a major in economics and mathematics, has been selected to receive the Fulbright Canada-Mitacs Globalink Research Internship, which is intended for U.S. students to undertake advanced research projects in their area of interest for 10 to 12 weeks at a top Canadian university.

Rhodes faculty and students participated in the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) held Jan. 3-6 in San Francisco, CA. The annual event, with more than 17 organizations participating, is known as the world’s largest mathematics gathering.

Rhodes College hosted the annual meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science (TAS) on campus in November, and several Rhodes students received awards for their research. Dr. Gregory Vieira, assistant professor of physics at Rhodes, served as local arrangements chair.

Dr. Christopher Seaton, professor of mathematics at Rhodes College, is among 46 mathematical scientists from across the country who have been named inaugural recipients of the AMS-Simons Research Enhancement Grants for Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) Faculty. Awardees will receive $3,000 a year for three years to support research-related activities.

Rhodes College junior Abigail Hultquist and sophomore Ryan McCrory are among the 413 students from across the United States who have been selected as Goldwater Scholars in the 2023 competition. Established by Congress in 1986 to honor Barry M. Goldwater, the Goldwater Foundation provides scholarships to support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming the nation’s next generation of natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering research leaders.

In 2021, a Rhodes College team learned that a proposal for a four-inch cube satellite of their own design was accepted to be flown aboard a NASA-sponsored rocket. Now the team is getting the satellite ready for launch into space by late 2024, and they have been practicing how they will communicate with it using a ground station built on campus.

Jackson Hendrix ’24 began his journey at Rhodes knowing nothing of cameras—fast forward to his junior year, the computer science and media studies double major is leading a video team working to bring back a piece of history.