Faculty and Staff
David Hankin
Instructor
David Hankin is a very well-respected mathematics teacher with a long and distinguished career. His New York City teaching career spans four decades at both high school and college levels. In addition, he served as Assistant Principal of Mathematics at Hunter College High School, Chair of the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination), mathematics education consultant, prolific problemist and author of competition questions, and is a frequent presenter at Mathematics conferences and events. Mr. Hankin was one of the invited graders of the 2001 International Mathematical Olympiad.
Lawrence Zimmerman
Instructor
Larry Zimmerman is a well-known and well-respected teacher who has been teaching mathematics for over 40 years. Until 2004 he taught at Brooklyn Technical High School, one of New York City's specialized secondary schools. Throughout his career, Mr. Zimmerman has been deeply involved with Math competitions and has coached students at all levels. He was one of the two primary authors of the ARML and NYSMYL competitions from 1983 until 1994 (NYSML until 1992) and was a grader of the 2001 International Mathematical Olympiad. Many of his former students have enjoyed distinguished records of achievement and include Intel (formerly Westinghouse) Science Talent Search finalists and USAMO and IMO participants.
Dmitry Sagalovskiy
Dmitry Sagalovskiy is a software engineer working at Hudson River Trading LLC, a trading firm relying on advanced mathematical modeling and high-performance computing. He previously worked at Google for several years, and has briefly taught mathematics at his alma mater Brooklyn Technical High School, where as a student he first became enthusiastic about mathematics. Dmitry received his BA in Mathematics from Harvard in 2000, and received his MS in Computer Science from Harvard as well.
Japheth Wood
Japheth Wood is an assistant professor of mathematics at Bard College's MAT Program, a one year masters program that prepares students to teach high school level biology, English, history and mathematics. Japheth's former students teach all over NYC, but especially in the South Bronx.
Japheth earned his BA in Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MA and PhD in Mathematics from U.C. Berkeley. While in high school, he considered himself the math champion of New Jersey. As a college math major he did well on the Putnam Exam, once even placing in the top ten.
Joy Hsiao
Joy Hsiao has been teaching mathematics for over 13 years in the NYC Public School system. She has served as the interim acting assistant principal in one of New York City's specialized secondary schools, a math coach, a mentor, and an adjunct faculty at the City College of New York's Graduate School of Education.
In addition to teaching regular classes, Ms. Hsiao is also very active in math competitions. She has coached numerous math teams, and mentored many students for math fair competitions. Ms. Hsiao received both her BA in Mathematics and MA in Teaching from the University of Chicago.
Keigo Kawaji
Keigo Kawaji is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University working on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) research in New York. He recently joined the New York Math Circle staff, and is thrilled to be volunteering for the program.
Keigo graduated from Duke with a dual degree in BME and Mathematics in 2007, and really enjoyed being part of Math Unions and Clubs throughout his undergraduate and high school years.
Ming Jack Po
Jack Po is currently a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University working on computational biology. He is heavily involved with math competitions, and currently serves as an advisor to the NYC Math Team, Baltimore County Math Team, and Florida State Math Team. He is also an adjunct faculty at the City College of New York's Graduate School of Education, helping new math teachers transition into NYC Public schools through the NYC Teaching Fellows program.
Prior to starting his PhD, he worked briefly at Capital One and Fannie Mae as a business analyst. Jack received his BS in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins, and received his MA in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins as well. Jack graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 2001.
Oana Pascu
Oana Pascu is a mathematics teacher at Stuyvesant Specialized High School, and is heavily involved in training NYC Math Team. Oana also administered the CCNY Summer Scholars Academy for several years, and taught courses there.
Oana earned her BA and Masters degrees in Mathematics from Princeton. She graduated as the valedictorian of Brooklyn Technical High School in 1998, where she was very successful in mathematics, and was the captain of the school's math team, semi-finalist in the Westinghouse (Intel) Science Talent Search, and a recipient of the prestigious CPAM Scholarship.