Slippery Rock University alumnus Samuel Lowery, ’24, is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at The Ohio State University as a student and teaching associate, building upon an academic foundation formed during his undergraduate years at SRU as a mathematics major.
“My education at SRU gave me an excellent foundation that I was able to utilize in my graduate studies,” Lowery said. “The University helped to prepare me for the next chapter of my life, and I will forever be grateful for that.”
From the moment he arrived at SRU in the fall of 2020, Lowery made deliberate efforts to immerse himself in undergraduate research, refusing to wait until his upperclassman years to get started.
“When I was a freshman, I did a research project with Dr. Boris Brimkov,” Lowery said. “I wanted to start early on, and the Math Department at SRU was incredibly supportive and collaborative, allowing me to have this research opportunity in my first year.”
By his sophomore year, Lowery secured a Research Experience for Undergraduates, which is a competitive, paid summer research program funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Those opportunities took Lowery to Clarkson University, where he participated in a specialized program aimed at encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“At Clarkson University, I was able to participate in another program which focused on encouraging collaboration and bridging the gap between biologists and mathematicians,” Lowery said. “We worked on clinical cancer data.”
The significance of the study, showing how mathematical modeling can have real-world impacts on medicine, was cemented when the team’s findings were published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journalFrontiers in Oncology.
Lowery’s academic momentum only accelerated from there. By his junior year at SRU was accepted into the highly competitive Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program in Hungary. Widely recognized as one of the most prestigious study-abroad programs for North American undergraduate mathematicians, the experience provided an intense dive into complex problem-solving for Lowery.
When time came around for Lowery’s senior year at SRU, he already began applying for graduate programs to earn his math Ph.D. and pursue a career as a professor and researcher.
During his time at SRU, Lowery’s experience wasn’t defined solely by lab work and textbooks; he was also a fixture of campus life. Lowery founded and became the first president of the Chess Club, served as the vice president of the Math Club, and was a member of the Dead Poets Society on campus. Lowery was also nominated into Kappa Mu Epsilon, a national mathematics honor society founded in 1931 to promote the interest of mathematics among undergraduate students.
Now thriving in Columbus, Ohio, Lowery is translating his undergraduate triumphs at SRU into graduate-level success.
“At Ohio State, I am currently in my second year doing research on scientific machine learning,” Lowery said. “It combines areas of numerical analysis and scientific computing in a machine learning setting. What really helped prepare me for this Ph.D. program was the research I was able to conduct while at SRU. I was able to dive into research and do everything possible to take advanced courses early on. The faculty, staff and department, always made the effort to remain flexible and support me outside of class. SRU really helped me prepare for graduate level math.”
Looking back at his journey from a freshman researcher to a doctoral candidate, Lowery offered a vital piece of advice for current and future SRU students looking to make their mark.
“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable in your studies,” Lowery said. “Get comfortable struggling, because that is when you learn the most.”
More information about the mathematics and statistics program at SRU can be found on the program’s webpage.
