Matthew Hudelson

Matthew Hudelson, Ph.D.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS

My roots are firmly planted in the Pacific Northwest; my mother and grandfather were both born in Seattle and my sisters and I all grew up in Federal Way, Washington, attending various public schools in that district. My uncle, oldest sister, her husband, and my nephew are all alumni of WSU and I obtained my undergraduate and PhD degrees at the University of Washington, the latter in 1995.

In 1995, I arrived at Washington State University as a newly minted assistant professor in the now-named Department of Mathematics and Statistics.  I began working to prove results in discrete mathematics, publishing papers and doing the activities expected of young faculty members.  During the 1996 Joint Mathematics Meetings, Joe Gallian spoke to new mathematicians in which his main message was, “find your niche.” This advice has resonated with me throughout my near quarter-century career at WSU; for me, that niche has been to participate in our department’s ongoing reform efforts, particularly for the calculus for engineers and physical sciences sequence (Math 171,172,273). This has expanded to playing an expanding role in serving students institution-wide.

My journey has included serving on Faculty Senate (in March 2020, I was elected as Executive Secretary and I began a three-year term in August 2020), as a Director (representing faculty) on the Student Book Corporation Board, as co-chair of the university-wide Course Materials Value and Effectiveness Committee (CMVEC), the faculty representative for the S & A Fees Committee, participation in the All-University Mathematics Committee, the CAS Strategic Planning Committee, the department-level Undergraduate Studies Committee, departmental pre-major advising, and serving as Math 171 or Math 172 course coordinator for numerous semesters.