Barker, Andrew

The Career of a Mathematician:  Like a Sine Curve without the Consistency

            What does it mean to be a mathematician?  It’s a question that comes up often in class and one that we can’t quite pinpoint but only describe values pertaining to the individual.  I believe the question is difficult to answer because just like the many fields of mathematics, mathematicians are just as diverse.  Sure we all have a basic understanding of quite a few mathematical fields, but after that a mathematician is defined by his/her research, publication, discoveries and/or theories.  One man who is making his mark in numerical analysis and other closely related fields is Andrew T. Barker.  Dr. Barker just got into his 30’s, but has published and presented dozens of pieces of his research findings.  He’s truly a valuable component to the mathematical community because he doesn’t just solve problems, but he solves problems better.  Not bad for a guy who was a self-proclaimed “ok” math student in high school.      

            Dr. Barker attended public school in Virginia and Oregon and went on to attend Wheaton College in Illinois.  He was originally a computer science major, but then shifted his focus just a bit to mathematics.  “…something about the calculus classes and teachers at Wheaton made me fall in love with the subject and switch majors” said Barker and he has been studying and excelling at math ever since. (A.T. Barker, personal communication Nov. 1 2013).

            After his undergraduate studies, Dr. Barker went on to complete his Ph. D. in Applied Mathematics.  His main research interests were in numerical analysis and parallel computations, with an applicable focus in simulation of blood flow in human arteries.  So what does all this mean to the non-mathematical society?  “Basically lots of people have ideas for numerical techniques they think will be fast or efficient or accurate, and I write the code to test them and see how they work in practice” (A.T. Barker, personal communication Nov. 1 2013).

            Dr. Barker went on to take a postdoctoral position at Louisiana State University from 2009 to 2012, teaching classes in both Mathematics and Computer Science.  He now works for a research institute named Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems based in Magdeburg, Germany.  The company primarily works with chemical and bioengineering research and analysis (2013), making this career choice for Dr. Barker a rather obvious one.

            Dr. Barker has went on to publish many works in the field of mathematics, including one in The College Mathematics Journal entitled Evolution Stability in the Traveler’s Dilemma.  In the article, Barker discusses the game The Traveler’s Dilemma (closely related to The Prisoner’s Dilemma), a game that is based on two people placing a value on their lost suitcase between $2 and $100.  There are a lot of variables that go into who gets how much for their suitcase, but essentially the value of your suitcase depends on the other person’s placed value on their suitcase; if both passengers but the same value on their suitcase they get that amount. However, if passenger A places a lower value on his/her suitcase, the difference is taken from passenger’s B value and given to passenger A.  The game itself is easier then it sounds, but also more difficult in a strategic and analysis stand point.  Many studies including Dr. Barkers have concluded that irrational strategies produce better “profit” for the “passengers” and therefore analytically better than rational strategies and traditional game theory (Barker 2009).

            Some of Dr. Barkers other published works include, but are not limited to:  engineering application and analysis, non-symmetric system strategies and parallel method application for a variety of sciences dating back to his days at Wheaton College as an undergraduate (Barker 2012).

            While attending Wheaton College, Dr. Barker met his future wife Linda and is now the proud father of two daughters, Abigail and Amanda.  In his spare time, Dr. Barker enjoys reading, hiking and drinking coffee.  He and his family currently reside in Germany where his job is located.  He ahs future mathematical aspirations in economic analysis; using mathematics to better understand economic inequality, what it exactly entails, how to better measure it and where it comes from (A.T. Barker, personal communication Nov. 1 2013).

                  Unlike the U.S. economy, the immediate future looks bright for one Andrew T. Barker.  The “ok” grade-school math student is certainly doing better than ok in mathematics today.  With 18 articles published in the last 5 years, while spending most of that time as a Ph.D. student or a postdoc. Professor, Dr. Barker is making more than just sine and cosine waves in the world of analysis and overall problem solving.  With his advancements in application and analytical research and his loving family by his side, maybe our economic system isn’t as bad of situation as it looks with Dr. Barker taking some interest in the situation.

Works cited

A.T. Barker (personal communication, November 1, 2013).

Barker, A.T. (2009).  Evolutionary Stability in the Traveler’s Dilemma.  The College Mathematics Journal, 40(1), 33-38. 

Barker, A.T. (2012).  Andrew T. Barker.  Bio. Website. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from https://www.math.lsu.edu/~andrewb/.

(2013). The Max-Planck Institute:  Research.  Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems.  Retrieved October 30, 2013, from http://www.en.mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de/institute/presentation.en.html.