Daniel Glasscock

Undergraduate Student
Mathematics major
Brown College
Research Project (Summer 06):  Research exploring properties of the “log canonical threshold” of algebraic plane curves
Graduation Date: May 2009

If you look for Daniel Glasscock on campus, you won’t find him here for the 2007–2008 school year. That is because he is currently studying abroad in Budapest, Hungary. Daniel is one of many Rice students in the Natural Sciences who take advantage of international study abroad programs in the midst of their other academic pursuits on campus.

Before leaving for Budapest, Daniel was engaged as an undergraduate with research for one of our top math professors, Dr. Brendan Hassett. Dr. Hassett explains his first impressions of Daniel: “I first met Glasscock in Honors Calculus III, our entry-level course for prospective mathematics majors. It covers the geometry of vectors in Rn, continuity, differentiability and partial derivatives, critical points, diagonalization of real symmetric matrices, and the second derivative test. He was at the top of the class, which includes our best mathematics students. The abstraction and proof-based problems frustrate many of our students, but Glasscock thrived. He was one of two students to grasp the material in my lectures in real time, and he asked the most penetrating questions.”  Based on Daniel’s fantastic academic performance, Dr. Hassett then was able to involve Glasscock in his own research during Daniel’s junior summer. There, he worked on research exploring properties of the “log canonical threshold” of algebraic plane curves, and succeeded again. “He is one of the very best undergraduate students who I have advised at Rice,” reflects Dr. Hassett. The summer prior to working with Dr. Hassett, Daniel earned a scholarship to pursue an independent research project on a strategic, live action game. 

Daniel is very comfortable on the college campus. During his junior and senior years of high school, he also took courses at the University of North Texas. Along the way he encountered ultimate frisbee, his favorite pastime outside of class. Daniel also tutors as a Brown College Fellow, and enjoys discussions and reading on religion. He hopes one day to be a teacher and researcher of mathematics at a prestigious university. From his success and background to date, one would think this is absolutely in Daniel’s future.

Daniel’s favorite websites:
www.google.com
www.xkcd.com
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ultimate/cloud9/
http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/