Mariana Smit Vega Garcia is an Assistant Professor at Western Washington University, working in geometric analysis and partial differential equations. In this interview, Mariana speaks, among other things, about her math-life balance, the experience of representing different minorities and the joy of teaching mathematics. In addition: lots of friendly advice for undergrads!

Mariana's webpage: http://faculty.wwu.edu/smitvem/​

Photo: from Mariana's webpage

0:00​ teaser

0:44​ didn’t want to be a professor

3:28​ trying to find math-life balance

9:10​ collaborators are friends

13:06​ mathematician-extrovert

16:05​ experiencing sexism

19:10​ burden of representing a minority

21:38​ insecurities in math

27:09​ joy of teaching

30:07​ motivation to do research

34:28​ algebraic vs analytic worlds

38:35​ pessimism in research

40:31​ we are more than our math

44:22​ moving around the world

49:35​ advice for students from faraway

52:32​ initiatives for minorities

58:32​ what students have to know

1:00:08​ final advice