Emma Zajdela

About Emma Zajdela

I am an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University, based out of the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) and the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), a center of the School of Public and International Affairs, working with Professors Simon Levin and Michael Oppenheimer. My research focuses on developing mathematical models to understand and predict complex social phenomena. I have worked on topics ranging from the mathematics of poker, autonomous vehicles, scientific collaboration at conferences, and fashion trends using a variety of approaches including game theory and agent-based modeling. My current work employs a dynamical systems framework, which is then empirically validated with data. Since 2015, I have worked with the Malta Conferences Foundation, a non-profit organization that uses science for peace in the Middle East and currently serve as Senior Assistant to the President. In 2023, I was elected Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors.After receiving my French science baccalaureate in 2012 and completing a two-year intensive science and mathematics program at the College Stanislas in Paris, France, I pursued my undergraduate studies at Loyola University Chicago, receiving a Bachelors of Science cum laude in Mathematics, and in Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics, with a minor in international studies. In 2018, I received a Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2023, I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, where my research was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Buffett Institute Global Impacts Fellowship, and the NICO Intersection Science Fellowship. My advisor was Prof. Daniel Abrams. I am passionate about bringing my love of math and science to young people and the general public and have been active in outreach programs including Northwestern’s Applied Math in Action, SPLASH and the French “Maths en Jean.” I also have served as the Science Diplomacy chair of Northwestern’s Science Policy Outreach Taskforce (SPOT) and Treasurer of the Society for Industrial and Applied Math (SIAM) student chapter. A classically trained violinist, I love travel and learning languages, the most recent of which is Arabic. For more info, please visit my website: https://mathemmatician.com/

Experience

1. Treasurer and Member of the Board of Directors

   Malta Conferences Foundation

   Jan 2023 — Present

Education

• Loyola University Chicago

  Bachelor of Science (BS), Mathematics, Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics

  2014 — 2016

• Collège Stanislas Paris

  Mathematics, physics, engineering

  2012 — 2014

• Collège Stanislas Paris

  Baccalauréat, Filière S Spécialité maths

  2009 — 2012

• University of Illinois Chicago

  Master of Science - MS, Applied Mathematics

  2017 — 2018

• Northwestern University

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Applied Mathematics

  2018 — 2023