“ For a long time , I worked on projects that I was interested in , but when I started working on the gerrymandering project , it was the first experience I had where I wasn ’ t working on it purely because it was interesting but because it felt important to me .” Greg Herschlag
Greg Herschlag , Class of 1999 , is an associate research professor of mathematics at Duke University . After attending Pittsburgh Allderdice High School , Herschlag graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in mathematics and then earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .
Some of his fondest memories of Falk were of his firstand second-grade experience with Dr . Marian Vollmer and some of his classmates . He also recalls the teaching of Dr . David Kramer , who read to the class from Howard Zinn ’ s “ A People ’ s History of the United States ,” and his eighth-grade English class with Greg Wittig .
After earning his doctorate , Herschlag completed postdoctoral fellowships at Duke in fluid dynamics and mathematical biology and in high-performance computing analysis of arterial blood flow .
While mentoring Duke students on a project involving fairness in voter redistricting , he became interested in the topic and began researching it in his own time .
“ I started picking it up on nights and weekends ,” Herschlag says . “ It replaced all my hobbies , and I really just fell in love with this project .”
Herschlag transitioned from his postdoctoral fellowship to an assistant research professorship , allowing him to stay at Duke and continue his work . Since 2016 , he has published papers using mathematics to prove that states ’ redrawn maps were unfairly partisan and has been involved as an expert in multiple court cases on gerrymandering .
“ For a long time , I worked on projects that I was interested in , but when I started working on the gerrymandering project , it was the first experience I had where I wasn ’ t working on it purely because it was interesting but because it felt important to me ,” Herschlag says . “ This was a transition between working to serve myself and working to serve something else , and that was a really important perspective shift that I didn ’ t know I could or should have been looking for before . But having experienced it , I now look for things that I can be of service to .”
Cecelia Ford Klein attended Falk as a junior nursery student through the fourth grade in the early 1940s . She earned a BA and an MA at Oberlin College and a PhD at Columbia University . In 1976 , she moved to Los Angeles to take a teaching position at the University of California , Los Angeles , in the field of pre-Columbian art history , which covers precontact Middle and South America . Her specialty is Aztec art . She retired from teaching in 2011 but continues to research and write .
“ I think my interest in non-Western ( or what in the 1960s was called ‘ primitive ’) art probably dates back to my years at Falk ,” she writes . “ I loved the school and have only fond memories of it .”
Ted Preisser graduated from Falk in 1962 and returned to Pittsburgh a decade later to pursue graduate school . After beginning his PhD studies at the University of Pittsburgh , Preisser decided to travel abroad .
“ I was at Pitt ’ s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs in the spring of 1974 when I realized that I had never worked abroad but needed to have that experience to make sense of some of my courses . So , my wife and I packed a bag and left for India , where we had friends . There wasn ’ t any work , though , so we pushed on through Pakistan , Afghanistan , and into Iran . In Teheran , we found a chamber of commerce office that pointed us to jobs as ESL teachers at a copper mine . Great students , terrific local people , and a good promotion encouraged us to stay for 18 months before returning to Pittsburgh .”
Back in Pittsburgh , Preisser transferred to the International Development Education Program ( IDEP ) in
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