Two-minute interview

Robert Smith?*, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Faculty of Medicine

What is your most important function at the University and why?

I’m able to integrate (apparently) disparate aspects into one. Sometimes we think of teaching and research as being entirely separate things, but as a biomathematician working on mathematical models for HIV, I’m able to use examples from my research in my teaching that really speaks to my students.

How did you come to your area of research?

Like many applied mathematicians, I started in pure math and then drifted in the applied direction. I did my PhD in environmental clean-up methods, and then became interested in applying mathematical tools to questions of disease control. It took me out of mathematics altogether, but it put me at the nexus of several fields, which in today’s interdisciplinary world is invaluable.

Of what are you most proud?

I solved one of the big outstanding problems in HIV: how many doses of your drugs could you miss before it became a problem. Using mathematical models, I was able to determine how many doses you could miss and how many you then had to take in a row, in order to be back in a good place.

What would you change in the world today if you could?

I just came back from Africa and it was incredibly inspiring to see the way people struggle against so many devastating odds and manage to achieve so much. I’d change  the incredible disparity that exists between parts of the world; people in Africa have so much to offer that could benefit all of us. I think that if they could break the cycle of poverty, then they’d soar in a way that could be magnificent.

You’ve just won a $1 million. What do you do?

Buy a million $1 lottery tickets. You could really win big!

What is the best kept secret in your faculty, department or service?

Those skeletons in the math lounge, just behind those dusty algebra textbooks. Nobody’ll ever find them.

*Editor's note: Legal surname