2021 Hannah T. Croasdale Award: Xingru Chen, Ph.D. Mathematics

The Hannah T. Croasdale Scholar Award is presented to the graduating Ph.D. recipient who best exemplifies the qualities of a scholar. These individuals possess personal qualities of intellectual curiosity, dedication, and commitment to the pursuit of new knowledge, and to teaching. The award honors Professor Hannah T. Croasdale, who performed research and taught biology for more than 40 years at Dartmouth. She was the first woman to achieve the level of full professor in the Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth. 

Xingru Chen was nominated unanimously by the Mathematics department, where she is completing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Feng Fu. Her work focuses on applied mathematics and she is interested in mathematically modeling human behavior, with an emphasis on real-world problems, including vaccination behavior and antibiotics overuse.

Recognized by colleagues working across many areas of the field, Xingru is a multi-talented scholar whose work and interests span traditional fields of mathematics, physics, and applications in biology and social sciences. She has impressed all who have worked with her for her capacity to generate insightful applications and approaches to the field.

She has excelled in research, producing timely and creative papers that have been published in highly ranked journals and her work on anti-vaccination behaviors in society has been featured in the popular media, including The New York Times.

In addition to stellar research, Xingru is also an enthusiastic and competent teacher. In addition to her teaching assignments, Xingru developed unique content, over and above the standard curriculum, and introduced data modelling to deepen her students' understanding. All who have observed her have been impressed, and she was recognized for her outstanding teaching as a recipient of the Ken Bogart Teaching Award for the 20-21 academic year.

Her ability to communicate complex mathematical problems is equally outstanding, and she has been invited as a guest speaker on several podcasts and presentations, and has designed and developed a website for tracking and modeling the COVID-19 virus.

Xingru's outstanding record of scholarship, her enthusiasm for teaching, and her excellent contributions to the community of scholars make her a most worthy recipient of the Croasdale Award. Congratulations!