Editor's Note: This is the twenty-seventh in a series of spotlights on Mathematics and Statistics Faculty. Dr. Palmer joined us as an assistant professor in Fall 2026. Also, Dr. Palmer says this is one of his favorite family photos because it is comically serious. Agreed!

Do you have a hobby or collect something? How did you get into that?

I have tried many things over the years: Collecting dirt from different states, funny t-shirts, baking bread, and (for a very brief period in the 2000’s) hacky sack. But, honestly, about the only consistent hobby I have had in my life is wearing facial hair. I have had a full beard of some length since I was 18. The men in my family tend to have weak, child-like chins, and so, to cover our insufficiencies in this area we grow large beards. This allows us to pretend that we have the chin of Kirk Douglas without ever having to face reality.

Tell us about an adventure you had, or would like to have.

As you can probably guess (I am, after all, a person whose hobby is growing facial hair) I live a very plain and boring life. So, this is a pretty difficult question. However, at a previous job, I had to travel into west Africa a couple of times. The first time I traveled there, I landed in Conakry at 2 in the morning and was picked up by a gentleman who didn’t speak a lick of English to take me to my hotel. This journey involved stopping at a checkpoint and attempting to explain (I don’t speak French) to some soldiers where I was going and why. I don’t think I was in any real danger of anything happening, but it was not comfortable by any means.

What kind of music, books, movies, sports, games, cars, etc. (pick one or more) do you like? Is there any particular reason?

I will focus on books here. Recently, I have been reading more and more of Dostoevsky and other Slavophiles (Khomyakov, Kireyevsky, Solzhenitsyn). The “why” is probably beyond the scope of this questionnaire, but, in short, they contain some surprisingly fresh insights on the challenges that we are facing in the modern West.

What do you study? How did you get into that? Are there any (real-world) applications of your area of study?

I work in the development and implementation of mathematical models of infectious disease. These models are used for forecasting the future trajectories of infectious disease, as well as predicting the impact and cost-effectiveness of interventions to help make strategic decisions. I fell into this because my PhD advisor had a problem that she and an ecology grad-student were working on. After that, I just kept getting lucky enough to find people to pay me to keep doing it.

What was one of you biggest successes or failures?

A couple of my scientific papers which were estimating the public health impact and cost-effectiveness of an intervention have informed and contributed to changes in recommendations by governmental health authorities.

What projects (academic or not) are you currently working on?

I have a couple: I am working with a group of epidemiologists and doctors to build a model to forecast the burden of Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis in Demark over the next century. I am also working on improving the theoretical basis for the integration of real-world data into models of mathematical disease.

What is the closest you have ever come to dying?

While I am almost sure that there are been many occasions that I have been close to death, I have managed to remain blissfully unaware of any of them! So, who knows? Maybe I have slept on a rattlesnake den? Perhaps I have just missed a bear-trap in the woods? Let your imagination run wild!

What did you do to put yourself through school, or what weird job have you held?

One of my first jobs was counting cars. We would sit at an intersection for 4 hours a day, and count how many cars were going in each direction of the intersection. This was where I learned how to cope with the tedium of extended, repetitive tasks.

What was the best piece of advice you were ever given?

“Destroy your smartphone.”

The thing that really makes you cool and unique is something that I would never have thought to list here. What is it?

I have a form of synesthesia where the left “feels” darker or gloomier than the right. As a kid, this made telling the difference between left and right pretty easy.

• Bachelor of Science in Mathematics
  • with your choice of minor
  • with secondary-level teacher certification through the JacksTeach program
  • with concentration in actuarial studies
  • with concentration in data science
• Minor in Mathematics
• Minor in Applied Statistics
• Master of Science in Mathematical Sciences with focus in
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics

The purpose of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics is to attract and retain the best available scholars who actively pursue knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and/or mathematics education and who skillfully communicate their knowledge of the subject to their students, colleagues, and the community as a whole.

Specific roles of the Department are:

1. To provide a sound curriculum for students who wish to pursue a career in mathematics or statistics in business and industry;
2. To provide service courses for students who are majoring in some other department, but who need mathematics or statistics as a tool or to satisfy general degree requirements;
3. To offer preparation to those who are planning to pursue a graduate degree;
4. To prepare teachers for positions in colleges, universities, and public or private schools.