New to the mathematics department: Dr. Xin Luo, a diversified educator from the University of Alabama. 

Luo was born in Wuhu, Anhui Providence,  a part of Southeast China very close to world renowned Yellow Mountains. When he graduated from Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, he had a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and applied mathematics, and a masters in applied mathematics.  His focus is in financial mathematics, which he continued studying while at the University of Alabama for his Ph.D. 

“When I was a kid, I was good at math as well as English,” said Luo when asked why he followed his academic path.  He taught a variety of math classes through his time at the University of Alabama.

After speaking about the Wilkes Community, he explained that the University of Alabama has much larger class sizes than Wilkes, and he would much rather have the smaller class sizes. He explained it as being more comfortable, as the larger classes had about 40, 50 or even 60 students.  At Wilkes, one of his classes — precalculus — has a comparatively small class size of about 25 students.  During the week, Luo has a full set of morning and evening classes.

“I enjoy the small town with pretty much everything, but I miss the Asian supermarkets.”

Luo, who lives in Kingston, has only taught here for a couple of months and is already very happy with his situation.

He has gotten to know much of his close faculty, and is happy with his friendly relationships, he said.  He is even friends with assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Xiaoming Mu, who he frequently eats lunch with at the SUB.

Through the application process, Luo had to make it through multiple interview sessions and attend a major math department meeting.  He explained it as a stressful but worthy process.

When looking forward at his placement at Wilkes, he would like to be part of the up and coming areas of actuary and financial mathematics.  He believes that it is a new study that will be brought to Wilkes very shortly. 

At the moment, Luo studies optimizations that can be used for all types of fields, including financial, engineering and pharmaceutical. He uses his optimizations to make models to determine the best ways to “optimize” resources and cost of products and decisions.

“My research is very important for all industries. It can save companies money, produce revenue, and possibly create new jobs.”