Alexander Diefes

Class of 2025
Majors in Mathematics and Chemistry

My name is Alex, and I'm a senior from the Philadelphia area! I'm interested in applying mathematics to problems in biology, and I spent this summer at a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) between Northwestern and UChicago understanding biofilm dynamics using partial differential equations. I'm a member of the iGEM team at Duke, where I combine my interests in math and biomedical engineering, and we were incredibly lucky to be able to present our work in Paris, France last fall! I also serve as a teaching assistant for Calculus I and volunteer with Math Circles off campus. In my free time, I enjoy going to basketball, football, and soccer games, and I also enjoy playing guitar and bass.

Favorite Class: My favorite class at Duke was Math 477 with Dr. Michael Reed. We spent the first half of the semester learning about many different mathematical models in physiology, and we spent the second half working on independent research projects and communicating our results!