About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics and Computer Science department at the University of Puget Sound, and the director of the newly-minted Data Analytics program, spearheading the development of the Interdisciplinary Data Analytics minor. You can contact me at mmasden@pugetsound.edu. Read more about the program’s founding here.

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I earned my Ph.D. from the Mathematics department at the University of Oregon in 2023, with advisor Dev Sinha.

From September 2023 to June 2024, I was an Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at ICERM, including participating in the Fall program Math + Neuroscience. A highlight about my research during the program is posted at MathInstitutes.org.

My dissertation research, Accessing the Topological Properties of Neural Network Functions, lies at the intersection of applied topology and machine learning. My general research interests are towards the application of mathematics – especially topology, geometry, combinatorics, and algebra – in the support of the computational and natural sciences, such as for data analysis and the development of new theoretical models.