Kaia De Vries: National math award winner loves a challenge

Complex math problems can intimidate some second-year college students, but they invigorate Kaia De Vries. The University of Maine sophomore dives headfirst into real analysis, permutations, inversions and other challenging queries presented to her, honing her skills so she can become an adept mathematician. 

In recognition of her hard work and passion, the American Mathematical Society awarded De Vries, of Fryberg, Maine, one of its undergraduate opportunity awards this year — the $3,000 Edmund Landau Award — to support her studies. The announcement came as a surprise to De Vries, who didn’t know that the UMaine Department of Mathematics and Statistics nominated her for the award until she received a phone call from Nigel Pitt saying the society gave it to her. 

“I really enjoy doing all of my math coursework, and I always try really hard to do a good job,” says De Vries, who is majoring in math and minoring in computer science. “It feels like that’s paying off.” 

De Vries says her love of math sparked in grade school when she completed homework assignments with help from her father, Chris. When tackling problems, he would tell De Vries about the real-world connections and applications for the work she was doing, which she says made it fun. 

At Fryeburg Academy, De Vries participated in the math team in her junior and senior year — the latter of which she spent as its co-captain, and competed against students from across the state. Through the team, she discovered a passion for solving intricate mathematical concepts, ones she didn’t explore in her high school classes.  

“I always liked the problem-solving aspect of math, and getting into the more complex, higher-level stuff,” De Vries says. “It’s interesting to learn about the bigger problems you can solve and how you can apply it all to modeling real issues.” 

Outside of class, De Vries serves as vice president of the Math Club, which was founded this year, and participates in department events, such as its weekly colloquium series. 

De Vries says the math faculty are “very supportive and amazing” with students, and their passion for their areas of expertise is inspiring. The department has also hosted more events and activities this year, she says, giving her more opportunities to socialize with her teachers and classmates and meet new people. 

“My peers have also been very wonderful to be around and be in class with,” De Vries says, “I love working on assignments and trying to figure out homework problems with them.”

This year, De Vries plans to apply for the “Four Plus” bachelor’s–master’s program in math, which will allow her to take graduate-level courses and begin working toward her master’s degree in her senior year. 

Students typically apply for the program in their third-year of study, but De Vries says she qualified to submit her application as a second-year student because she started at UMaine with 35 credits. Eisso Atzema, De Vries’ advisor and principal lecturer in mathematics, encouraged her to apply for the “Four Plus” program. 

“He has been really great at encouraging me to do things like apply for the Four Plus master’s program and to just generally be involved in all of the events the math department does,” De Vries says. 

Next year, De Vries hopes to conduct mathematics research. While she hasn’t yet determined her research topic for her undergraduate program, she looks forward to discovering new knowledge for the remainder of her college experience. She also hopes to continue conducting research in a future career in the private sector. 

“I think it would be fun to do something that someone hasn’t done before,” she says, “say something, prove something that no one has ever proven before, even if it’s really small.” 

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu