Christine Sample
Chair, Department of Mathematics; Associate Professor of Mathematics
Office Hours
Office: Cardinal Cushing Library, Room G-12
Office hours: Mondays 9:30-10:30am, 3-3:30pm; Wednesdays 3-5pm; Fridays 9:30-10:30pm and by appointment
Education
Ph.D., M.S. in Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University; B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science, Boston College
Bio
I have always enjoyed mathematics. I studied mathematics and computer science in college and subsequently took a job as a computer programmer in New York City after graduation. I eventually found my way to applied mathematics, a quantitative discipline that combines my affection for mathematics with a desire to gain greater insight into everyday life. I am thrilled to be teaching at Emmanuel and find it truly gratifying to share my appreciation of the subject with students.
Courses I Teach
- MATH 1101 - College Algebra
- MATH 1103 - Precalculus
- MATH 1105 - Topics in Contemporary Mathematics
- MATH 1111 - Calculus I
- MATH 1112 - Calculus II
- MATH 1121 - Applied Mathematics
- MATH 2107 - Differential Equations
- MATH 3101 - Real Analysis
Publications + Presentations
- A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. Sample and S. Y. Shvartsman. Formation of morphogen gradients: Local accumulation time. Physical Review E, Vol. 83, No. 5, 051906, 2011.
- C. Sample and A. A. Golovin. Morphological and chemical oscillations in a double membrane system. SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, Vol. 71, No. 2, 622-634, 2011.
- P. V. Gordon, C. Sample, A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. B. Muratov and S. Y. Shvartsman. Local kinetics of morphogen gradients. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 108, No. 15, 6157-6162, 2011.
- A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. Sample and S. Y. Shvartsman. How long does it take to establish a morphogen gradient? Biophysical Journal, Vol. 99, 59-61, 2010.
- C. Sample and S. Y. Shvartsman. Multiscale modeling of diffusion in the early Drosophila embryo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 107,No. 22, 10092, 2010.
- C. Sample and A. A. Golovin. Nonlinear dynamics of a double bilipid membrane. Physical Review E, Vol. 76, No. 3, 031925, 2007.
- C. Sample and A. A. Golovin. Formation of porous metal oxides in the anodization process. Physical Review E, Vol. 74, No. 4, 041606, 2006.
Research Focus
My research interests lie in the application of mathematics to the physical world. I am especially interested in how mathematics can be used to understand problems in biology. My dissertation looked at how patterns form in two very different contexts: (1) the spontaneous formation of nanoscale pores in metal oxides and (2) the formation of periodic patterns in lipid bilayers. My postdoctoral work at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University was in the field of developmental biology. We created mathematical models to explore mechanisms by which initially equivalent cells are patterned into a group of cells with different functions.
