Chabria was recognized for her work in the Terrapin Teachers program and her commitment to mathematics education.

Zoe Chabria, a junior mathematics and secondary education double-degree student at the University of Maryland, was awarded the 2024 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Prospective 7-12 Secondary Teacher Course Work Scholarship. Granted to only one recipient nationwide annually, this competitive scholarship recognizes outstanding university students preparing to become middle or high school mathematics educators. This year, Chabria was awarded the maximum amount of $10,000 to financially support her tuition and living expenses as she completes her studies at UMD.

Chabria’s achievement also marks the second consecutive year that a UMD student enrolled in Terrapin Teachers won this national scholarship. Terrapin Teachers—a joint initiative between UMD’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences and College of Education—aims to increase the number of high-quality science and mathematics teachers in middle and high schools. Based on the nationally recognized UTeach program, Terrapin Teachers enables undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields to receive a subject-matter degree and a teaching certification simultaneously.

“I’m thankful to not only the donors who funded the award but my professors, my advisor, my family and friends who supported me throughout the process,” Chabria said. “I’m also very proud to represent Terrapin Teachers and UMD with this achievement. It’s truly an honor.”

Dana Grosser-Clarkson, a senior lecturer at the UMD Department of Mathematics and Chabria’s Terrapin Teachers advisor, praised her work and her passion for mathematics education.

“Zoe is an outstanding student, which is why I encouraged her to apply for the scholarship. I am always impressed by her work ethic in the classroom and her ability to communicate her thinking with her peers,” Grosser-Clarkson said. “The Terrapin Teachers community is more than happy to celebrate Zoe’s achievement.”

From Chicago to College Park

Originally from Chicago, Chabria grew up with a natural affinity for math. She participated in and led math teams from fourth grade through high school, developing a passion for numerical puzzles and problem-solving. She developed an interest in teaching when she began tutoring her peers in math and chemistry after a classmate asked her for help.

“The first time I got to help someone else do math, I was just telling them what I knew and how I would personally solve a problem,” she recalled. “But then, I really started thinking. What are the different ways they can go about learning and thinking about the problem? How can I make it easier for them to understand? I tried out different teaching methods to better help them once I understood what they needed.”

Just like a puzzle piece sliding into place, Chabria realized that she had a knack for teaching, a skill that she wanted to develop further. She paid closer attention to her favorite teachers and as she noticed their different approaches to instructing students, she was inspired to incorporate some of their teaching styles in her own tutoring work.

“My teachers were inspirational because of how they empowered students every day,” Chabria said. “Watching them at work solidified my desire to teach and my plans to pursue a career in education. I got very interested in what it takes to be an effective math teacher, so I asked my own teachers and kept looking for colleges that could help prepare me to become one.”

Chabria was instantly drawn to UMD after learning about the Terrapin Teachers program, which offered a unique learning model and teaching certification process.  After speaking to the director and a student participating in the program, Chabria joined Terrapin Teachers and never looked back.

“You could say I specifically came to UMD to be part of Terrapin Teachers,” Chabria said. “It was really cool that I found a school that catered to exactly what I wanted to do and had high-quality math and education programs that I could be a part of. I felt like the people I spoke with were passionate about teaching and that they genuinely wanted to support both me and my goals.”

Once she got to UMD, Chabria worked to improve her teaching skills at every level, both in and out of the classroom—from tutoring peers in the Department of Mathematics to speaking at the Early Career Teaching Conference held at Towson University, where she presented on the topic of magic squares to local educators. Chabria is president of the Future Mathematics Teachers Council, a student organization dedicated to supporting future math teachers by providing a space to share ideas about teaching and learning math on UMD’s campus.

Being part of Terrapin Teachers also helped Chabria gain field experience as a teacher. She worked as a teaching assistant for introductory courses in the program, learning how to prepare for lessons and work with students from local schools.

“I’d recommend any undergrad take TLPL 101 and TLPL 102 if they’re interested in making use of their technical knowledge to help younger STEM students. The classes aren’t locked to education majors or Terrapin Teachers students,” she said. “We’re a small but tightly knit community, so we’ve always supported each other by sharing our problems and working together to solve them.”

Looking ahead, Chabria hopes to continue developing innovative teaching methods for middle and high school students. She plans to stay in Maryland to teach after she graduates in 2026.

“Even though Chicago will always be my hometown, I really love it here in Maryland—you guys don’t get much snow, which is nice,” she joked. “I’d like to stay here, continue my growth as an educator and build on the community connections I made through Terrapin Teachers. Growing up, I had inspirational teachers who made positive impacts on my life and I want to do the same for new generations of students.”

Donors Carol Fullerton and James A. Yorke met this year’s fellows at a luncheon in October.

Twenty-five graduate students in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland received 2024-25 Herbert A. Hauptman Endowed Graduate Fellowships.

The fellowship program was created with an estate gift from Carol Fullerton that honors the memory of her late father, Nobel laureate Herbert A. Hauptman (Ph.D. ’55, mathematics), and launched in 2020 thanks to a gift from Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Mathematics James A. Yorke (Ph.D. ’66, mathematics). 

The 2024-25 Hauptman Fellows are:

• Muhammad Aftab
• Marco  Bornstein
• Amandeep Chanda
• Philip Charles
• Spencer Durham
• Charles Dziedzic
• Shitao  Fan
• Wen-Tai Hsu
• Chenzi Jin
• Brandon Kolstoe
• Sze Kwong
• Qihang Li
• Zhirui Li
• Shenghao Li
• Nicholas McConnell
• Soyoung Park
• Vasanth Pidaparthy
• Shin Song
• Zezheng Song
• Ian Teixeira
• Maeve Wildes
• Valerie Wray
• Zhangchi Xu
• Yilin Zhang
• Shaoyang Zhou

Matthew Becker (M.S. ’17, Ph.D. ’18, applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation) published a math-infused thriller novel.

A discreetly placed pi symbol. A code composed of Fibonacci numbers. A cryptic reference to Fermat’s last theorem. To a mathematically trained eye, Matthew Becker’s thriller novel, “Run,” is full of clues that could help astute readers figure out the killer. For everyone else—well, you might just have to keep reading.

“A book that makes you want to keep going—that's really all I wanted,” Becker said of his goal in writing “Run.”

A voracious reader of mystery novels, Becker also holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation from the University of Maryland. So it’s perhaps no surprise that his first published novel mentions a posteriori probabilities and Bayes’ theorem, with plenty of other mathematical references in between. 

Set in the Washington, D.C. area, the plot of “Run” follows Veronica Walsh, a math professor at Georgetown University who disappears after sending her husband, Ben, a political staffer, an unusual text: “I love you. I just need you to know that.” As Ben searches for signs of his wife, he gets pulled into two murder investigations and starts to question how much he actually knows about the woman he’s married to. 

Becker is happy with the reception that “Run” has received since its launch on September 24, 2024. As of November, “Run” had 4.1 stars on Goodreads and 4.2 stars on Amazon with more than 150 ratings on each platform.

“I'm trying not to be religious about checking ratings, but also I really like numbers,” Becker said with a laugh. “If I see a 2-star rating, I'm not personally offended, but I think, ‘Oh, that brings the average down.’”

Readers can expect to see a little more math and a lot more mystery when Becker’s sequel to “Run,” titled “Don’t Look Down,” is published on January 14, 2025. A third and final installment is planned for release in the spring. Even though Becker always loved reading murder mysteries, he didn’t dream of writing them.

Instead, Becker wanted to be an applied mathematician. He decided to come to UMD after hearing Department of Mathematics Chair Doron Levy speak at a conference about mathematical biology’s applications in cancer research.

“It was so interesting and so engaging,” Becker said, “and he’s the main reason that I wanted to come here.”

For his dissertation, Becker modeled the growth of cancer tumors and the connections to multi-drug resistance.

After graduating from UMD in 2018, Becker landed a job as a mathematician at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where he worked on satellite tracking in the air and missile defense sector. During the pandemic, he switched tracks and joined a larger national effort to determine demand for COVID test kits.

“APL inherited a model for test kit demand in the country that was just 51 tabs of an Excel spreadsheet, all interconnected, with no notes,” Becker said. “It was horrible, so my value added was taking that and creating a semi-automated Python script.”

That project and similar efforts across the country helped the U.S. government figure out how many free test kits to mail to households at a time when demand far outstripped supply. 

Becker left APL when his wife, Sarah, a diplomat and fellow UMD alum (M.A. ’15, public policy), received her first assignment in the U.S. Foreign Service: a two-year stint in Uzbekistan. He welcomed the opportunity with open arms and started learning Russian alongside his wife. Together with their one-year-old daughter, they moved to the nation’s capital, Tashkent, in 2022.

After acclimating to their new environment, Becker started tutoring middle and high school students—mostly the children of other diplomats—in math.

“Word-of-mouth spread quickly through the diplomatic community that there's a guy who has a lot of free time and has a Ph.D. in applied math,” Becker said.

Becker also revisited his goal of becoming a published author, a pursuit he started years earlier while still living in the U.S. He finished writing “Run” in 2020 and pitched it to plenty of agents without much success.

“I got rejected by 125 agents,” Becker said. “One agent told me that my plot was far too convoluted, and on the same day, a different agent rejected working with me because my plot was too straightforward.”

Becker’s big break came after moving to Uzbekistan and learning that Aethon Books, a publisher that specializes in science fiction and fantasy, was looking for political thrillers. He submitted the first 50 pages of “Run” and received a positive response within 48 hours. By the end of the week he had received and accepted a three-book deal, and he ultimately secured a contract with a literary agent.

For those familiar with the thriller genre, Becker describes his writing style as a cross between two of his favorite authors.

“Without meaning to sound too hubristic, because at this point, I'm just some guy, I think of myself as sort of in-between Harlan Coben and David Baldacci,” he said. “That's the niche I'm trying to carve out.”

With one book under his belt and two more on the way, Becker is excited to see what his future as an author holds. After finishing his current series, he hopes his publisher will pick up another book he wrote years earlier about a serial killer. The plot is inspired by the famous ghost stories of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, where Becker lived for years while attending UMD.

In the meantime, Becker is focused on being a full-time dad to his two daughters, the youngest of which arrived in March. He is currently back in the U.S. but gearing up for another international move to Nicaragua in July 2025 for his wife’s second assignment, adding that he welcomes the new personal and professional challenge.

“I'm excited, and I love this adventure,” Becker said. “I'm fully on board, and I’ll follow wherever it leads.”

Written by Emily Nunez