David Kaplan

Associate Professor of Mathematics and Chair Mathematics and Applied Science Dept, York College of Pennsylvania

What engaged or excited you most about learning when YOU were a student?

As an undergraduate, I was driven to become as broadly educated as possible, choosing two majors, mathematics and English, and maintaining a wide range of reading interests. Before graduate school, I worked in a bookstore for several years, reading voraciously in the many areas that caught my interest. As a graduate student, it was time to narrow the focus - to mathematics. It was fascinating and exciting to lift the fog, to thoroughly learn areas of advanced mathematics: full understanding, problem-solving proficiency, and alacrity with technique. Really knowing a topic gives the thrill of being completely facile and adroit with it.