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What he does:
- Brian Habecker started working at the Department of Defense in the summer of 2002. This was his first real job out of college, and he has worked there for almost 3 years. Most of what he does could be labeled as computer programming. He spends a great deal of time closely analyzing and processing incoming data.
Math on the Job:
- The Department of Defense maintains a large branch that
"coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to
protect U.S. government information systems and produce foreign signals
intelligence information." For obvious reasons, Brian cannot
discuss the details of his day-to-day work. However, he notes
that mathematics is so important to his work that his employer paid for
him to continue his education, and he now has a master's degree
in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. He says that the
most commonly used branches of mathematics in his work are
combinatorics, symbolic logic, and statistics. There are
various applications for number theory, graph theory, and
matrix theory. Any computer programming ability is helpful,
although
Brian notes that he had little training before he started. Being
able
to think logically is the most important math related trait he uses.
Brian's background:
- Brian earned his B.A. in Mathematics at Franklin & Marshall
College in 2002. After starting work, he went on to earn his M.S
in Applied Math and Compuational Science from Johns Hopkins
University. Brian took advantage of many of the
opportunities that a liberal arts college offers: in addition to
majoring in mathematics, he tutored, did summer research with one of
his
professors, took several courses in film, and spent one semester
studying in Australia. He had several mathematics courses which
were writing intensive, and that "these courses were the best
preparation in terms of writing and presenting for my job, since they
involved presenting advanced technical information in an understandable
way."
- When Brian started college, he didn't really knew exactly what he
wanted to do, and so he set out "trying to be good at everything rather
than great at one thing." With this goal in mind, he took a lot
of science courses, some astronomy, some physics, some earth
sciences. During the day, he was a math major, but then he'd play
some volleyball, go out to a bar or club until 1, then watch obscure
movies on the Sundance channel. He encourages students who are
good at math to learn it and become great at it, but also to try
every single opportunity that crosses their paths, because "you never
know when you'll find something you love to fill the rest of your time."
Advice for students:
- Brian says, "Don't be discouraged by the shocked looks people
give you when you're thinking of going into math. Don't get
bothered by the initial response this gets from almost everyone, "Oh,
you're going to be a teacher then?" If you love math or are just
naturally good at it, you're always going to be in a minority of the
workforce, and that means there's a lot of job opportunities
waiting. Study something besides math and computer science on the
side which aids your communication skills; a mediocre
mathematician who can write or speak well is more valuable than an
amazing mathematician who can't present any ideas."