Elise Walker

Elise Walker is currently a Ph.D. student at Texas A&M University and her advisor is Frank Sottile.

She gets excited whenever systems of polynomial equations appear. She loves that, polynomial systems appear in so many different applications, such as robotics, chemical reaction networks, algebraic statistics, and so on. If there's a polynomial system involved, she is interested. Specifically, she finds numerical approximation methods fascinating, so she is quite fond of numerical homotopy continuation for solving polynomial systems. Much of her current work is to improve homotopy methods through investigation of more algebraic notions, such as finite Khovanskii bases, Newton-Okounkov bodies, and toric varieties.

Elise visited MPI MiS last January for a Polymake conference and spoke in the Nonlinear Algebra Seminar. During this quarantine time, she is enjoying MPI MiS's Nonlinear Algebra Seminar Online as a way to stay connected and to continue learning.

In her free time, she loves going on adventures with her husband and her dog. They particularly enjoy being outdoors, with interests ranging from hiking and rock climbing to long bicycle rides and gardening.